Left in Limbo
by CuddleMeCozy
Summary: Mallory falls into dimensional limbo while the ducks are chasing Dragaunus. She has to figure out a way home but it's not going to be easy. MM/C I changed the name of the story.
1. Chapter 1

Hi everyone! A guest requested that I do a Canard/Mallory story in a review, so here it is. :)

Also I just want everyone to know I plan to finish all of my stories ( The Runaways, Return to Hockey Dome, Old Friend, Blast to the Past, and The Job. ) Some of these have been sitting unfinished for a long time but they will be completed! Thanks for reading. :D

Left Behind

Chapter 1:

The Aerowing shook and rocked angrily back and forth as it fought the strange air currents in dimensional limbo. Pursing Dragaunus through limbo again they found that the deeper they went the more landscape it had.

The landscape was surrounded by dark grey jagged rocks and a purple sky. Some strange creatures were on the ground staring up at them as they flew by. A few BRAWNS looked up at them but didn't attack, however they did attack Dragaunus's ship. Making it more difficult for him to get away.

Their fight had taken them all over limbo's landscape and air. In their pursuit of Dragaunus, they came too close to some mountainous terrain. A large beast from limbo with long claws and sharp teeth jumped onto the Aerowing. Holding on to the back.

Tanya and Nosedive yelled out in surprise when the Aerowing's back end was pulled down. "We caught some added weight! We're losing Dragaunus!"

"Whatever that is we need to get rid of it!" Nosedive yelled back to the others. Mallory and Duke ran to the back of the plane to figure it out. Opening the tail they looked around not seeing anything until a giant clawed hand suddenly came from the outside of the Aerowing and grabbed the inside hoisting with it a large blue beast. It was ugly and vicious looking. It's flat face was squished up except for it's lower jaw which had small but sharp teeth sticking out. It's black beady eyes looked at the two ducks in front of it and it licked a large black tongue over it's mouth.

Duke grabbed his saber and stood ready to fight while Mallory aimed her puck-canon at the creature. It hissed and whipped it's extremely long tongue out at the two ducks. They jumped back and instead it caught at chair. Ripping it out of the floor it pulled it back to this mouth and opened wide. Mallory and Duke thought that it would take at hard hit to the face and end up knocking itself out of the plane but instead this thing had an upper jaw that shoot forward like a shark and teeth extended out clamping down on the metal chair and breaking it in half.

It hiss and tossed the chair out the back. Mallory fired on the beast trying to keep it at bay, it seemed to work for a time too. Duke pulled out his gun not wanting to go near it and get caught by that tongue, he fired on it from a distance. Wildwing joined them shooting his pucks at the creature and pushing it back. It's back foot slipped and the rear of it's large body fell over the side, it's front claws catching on the ground of the plane's rear. In desperation it whipped it's tongue out to grab something to hold onto, the ducks saw it too late and the tongue wrapped around Mallory's legs. It's claws gave way and Mallory was dragged out the back just able to grab onto the hydraulics that lowered the plane's rear platform.

"MALLORY!" Wildwing yelled running back to help Mallory with Duke following him.

"GUYS! WE'RE LOSING DRAGAUNUS AND WE'RE GONNA BE LEFT BEHIND IN LIMBO! LOSE THAT WEIGHT NOW!" Tanya yelled from the front, not seeing what was going on in the back.

Duke tried to shoot the creature's tongue but the pucks just bounced off the rubbery muscle extending form the creature's mouth, wrapped tightly around Mallory's legs. Wildwing grabbed her hand wanting to pull her up but she was too heavy to pull with the creature on her. He watched her face in horror as he realized that this was the same as Canard. "Mallory! Hold on!"

"WE'RE LOSING HIM!" Nosedive yelled from the front. Grin wrapped his arm around Wildwing's midsection, trying to hold him in the plane.

"TANYA SOMETHING HAS GOT MALLORY!" Duke yelled back to the front.

Nosedive and Tanya looked back to see Mallory hanging out the back of the plane with a giant creature holding on to her. Tanya gasped and Nosedive yelled at them to get it off of her.

Duke was still shooting at the creature, trying to get it to let go of Mallory, even shot it in the eye but it still wouldn't let go. Mallory looked up at Wildwing sadly. "I'm sorry." She said to him as he started frantically shaking his head no.

"Don't do it!" But it was too late. Mallory let go of the plane, she could hear of the other ducks voices getting smaller and screaming for her as the plane became smaller and smaller. The air rushed around her signaling her drop as she watched the plane fly away and follow Dragaunus's ship out of dimensional limbo.

She didn't even bother looking at the approaching ground. She was dead no matter what she did. Better that it was a quick death then a slow one. The creature below her screeched as the ground approached, signaling their end was near.

Mallory watched the Aerowing disappear though the gateway as it closed behind them. "They made it." The creature's screeches became louder and she closed her eyes waiting for the killing impact. She could hear it hit the ground below her, it's horrible screeching suddenly stopping. She hit seconds after but instead of hitting solid ground she bounced painfully off of the fat creature's stomach and landed rough, rocky ground face first. "UGH!"

Taking a moment Mallory realized that she wasn't dead, but it certainly felt like she should be. Ouch. Looking over she saw that the ugly beast had taken the impact of the fall. It's hollow eyes staring at nothing, glazed over in death. Blue blood leaked out from it as it's limp tongue finally released her legs. Mallory stood up and scanned her surroundings. It was a giant purple barren waste land.

She was fucked.

…..

She walked. That was all she could do. In a daze she looked at the landscape that would be the place of her death. She would most likely die from exposure or of thirst. Neither were good ways to go. Looking at her com she tried to reach the others even though she knew it was no use. It gave her nothing but static. Sighing she left her com signal open in a desperate attempt to reach the others as she walked.

Looking for something. Perhaps a BRAWN would help her. YES! That was it! A BRAWN! Surely they could help her. They could get in and out of the limbo as they liked! She just had to get to them but could she do it before she died? From her conversations with BRAWN's head, back in the pond, Mallory knew that limbo could be endless but she had to try besides the fight was not that far from here and BRAWNS were all over that area. This was the answer to her problems! Won't the guys be surprised when they she walked into the pond just fine. Mallory smiled to herself. Everything was going to be okay.

…..

…...This was not fucking okay.

She had been walking for hours and there was no sign of a single BRAWN anywhere! She saw wreckage from pieces of Dragaunus's ship that fell off and could see landmarks that indicated that she was in the right spot but no BRAWNS. "They must have pursued him." She said to herself.

She searched on. Hoping to find some help. The colors of the sky hadn't changed. Everything looked the same and there was nothing in the sky that gave her a way to navigate. It was looking bad for her. "What was I thinking letting go of the ship? Oh right, sacrificing myself to save my friends." She muttered sarcastically to herself.

She hadn't see a signal life form out here besides the dead creature she left back where she landed. Damn this sucked. She continued on, hoping to find, something or someone. She had to keep up hope, if she didn't then she really was going to die.

…..

It had been a whole day and she had come across nothing. It was very hard to keep track of time since the sky never changed. Climbing up high on a large rock formation she looked around herself trying to find someone or something. Nothing... She could only see the dark rocky terrain stretch out all around herself. The situation was leaning more and more towards hopeless but she wouldn't give up.

She continued onward towards another large rock formation that was maybe a days walk from here. Whatever, she had to kept going. She had to try.

I was midday through the next day when she realized that the she had gone without water for three days. The max a body is supposed to go without water, or else risk death but the funny thing was she was still perfectly fine! She could still keep moving and wasn't thirsty. What was going on? She wasn't hungry either but figured that was because she was more concerned at finding some help. Something was different here she just didn't know what.

…..

Two hours of walking and this is what she found.

Water... out in the middle of nowhere! With no sigh that it connected to rivers or anything. Did it rain in limbo? Oh well! This had to be good right? If there was water then there was life!... But life here didn't need food or water. …..Fuck.

"Well mind as well make camp here." She mumbled to herself.

Finding what could pass for a cave she made her temporary home. Not realizing that someone was watching her. She heard some rocks slide as if someone was out there. She looked around herself, hoping that there wasn't any more of the strange monsters out there that tried to attack her the first time.

Pulling out her gun she scanned her surroundings. "Come out! Who ever you are your not very good at stealth." There was no answer. She narrowed her eyes and wandered away from the cave, scouting the area. Looking for the source of the noise, she kept her gun out and ready for a fight. "I won't hurt you if you have no intention of hurting me. Just come out."

Something shifted to her right and she aimed her gun at where the noise came from. There was a shadow covered area that hid whoever was moving around her. Activating her tactical light on the end of her gun she approached slowly, searching the shadows for danger. Her light scanned the darkness and she came across something that surprised her, there was a feather on the ground, a peach colored feather that was darker then hers. It definitely belonged to a Puckworldian.

" _So someone else is here. They just don't want to show themselves. But why?"_ She thought as she dropped the feather to the ground. When she stood up, she saw purple hair out of the corner of her eye. She turned quickly to see the shadow disappear. 

" _I see. That's why they ran away... It's_ Lucretia DeCoy." She growled her name out loud, not happy that the bitch was still alive. She would not be able to rest now, she was going to have to remain on her guard if Lucretia was running around spying on her. _"Why didn't she attack?... She must have been hoping that I had a way out. Whatever hopefully I won't have to see her again... If she tries anything I'll just shoot her."_

… _.._


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own the Mighty Ducks.

Left Behind

Chapter 2:

Mallory went back to her cave and found a good defensive position, she could see anything coming from far away but had her back covered. No one would be able to see her thanks to the shadows surrounding her but she could see them. Staying in the shadows, Mallory waited to see if the purple haired traitor would come back, but didn't see hid of hair of her. It was just as well.

Further in the distance she could see trees, maybe this was a good sign. That had to mean more water, which meant more baths! She closed her eyes to rest and slowly begin to drift to sleep, thinking about the others and what was happening to them right now. It was funny, while she was on Earth she would have given anything to get back to Puckworld but now that she was here, she would give anything to get back to Earth. "What a joke." She mumbled. Slipping into sleep against her will. She was vaguely aware of the purple head of hair peaking out from a rock at her again.

Mallory awoke to the sound of feet moving close to her. She waited with her eyes close to see what would happen. She didn't need to open them to know it was Lucretia. The purple haired duck crouched in front of Mallory raising her hand to try and grab a gun from Mallory but Mallory pulled out her gun faster then Lucretia could react and kicked her away from herself. "Stay right there Lucretia!" Lucretia tumbled back but got to her feet quickly.

"I'm not here to hurt you. Your the only other I've seen since I've been here." She held her hands up in the surrender position.

"What do you want traitor?" Mallory said, keeping her gun aimed at Lucretia.

"Like it or not, your the first person I've seen since I've been here. Looks like we're stuck here together... At least I have company now." She mumbled the last part resentfully.

"Fuck. No." Mallory jumped out of the cave and began walking away while keeping an eye on the other female.

"You can't just leave me here! I thought you mighty ducks were supposed to be all noble?!"

"That's my leader not me. I'll kill you if you keep following me. Your not my problem Lucretia." Mallory continued onward with Lucretia following behind.

"Your leader! Wildwing?! Noble?! That bastard! He's the one who got me here. I'd slit his throat the first chance I got!"

"Watch your mouth bitch! Dragaunus sent you here, not Wildwing. In my opinion it's more then you deserve!" Turned around ready to put Lucretia in her place, she could use a punching bag right about now away.

Lucretia stopped and crossed her arms while glaring at Mallory. "Despite that, his trickery is what got me here. If I ever see your leader again... he's good as dead."

"Oh please. Wildwing would whip the floor with you not to mention Duke and Nosedive would be the first in line to beat your scrawny ass back into limbo. They were pretty pissed when they finally figured out that you were a traitor... took them long enough."

Lucretia didn't respond to that. She just watched Mallory continue to walk away. "You'll come looking for me sooner or later Mallory. We're the only ones here. You'll see!"

"No I won't." Mallory continued on, not looking back at the angry female duck.

…..

She hadn't seen Lucretia since that last talk which was three days ago but something told her that the traitor was following her, so she kept her guard up. She had been looking for someone else for days but nothing was out there. Sighing Mallory stretched her stiff muscles, sleeping on these cold rocks did nothing for her muscles or her back. She raised her arms above her head and caught a whiff of herself.

"I need a bath." She mumbled. Finding a tall rock next to a dark tree she climbed up it to see if she could find water anywhere. Searching the lands she checked all around herself, she couldn't see any water, only rocks and trees but she kept looking until she saw a small reflection in the distance. "what the..." Staring at the reflection she watched it flicker. Light was bouncing off of some kind of shiny surface, she had to find out what it is. Climbing down she made her way to where she saw the reflecting light. It would be hours before she reached it but maybe it would be a clue about someone else here or maybe it was water.

Five hours later she finally found it. Well it wasn't water but it was meant to go with a piece of equipment. It was a round but flat piece of gold, almost looked like cover for something. Not sure what it could go to she put it in her side pouch and left it to ponder on later. Right now she wanted to scout the area for others. Maybe they were still here if they dropped this or maybe it was Lucretia's.

She made her way further up the rock and found what looked like an abandon camp site. She searched the area hoping to find more clues. Whoever was here before, they didn't leave much behind to track them by. The only other clue she found was a small piece of fabric, it was dark blue. "Hum.. that doesn't really help me." She checked her com to see if she had a signal but nothing came up. "Onward soldier, there's nothing here."

She left the abandon camp site with a bit of hope in her that there was someone else out there besides her and Lucretia. Maybe they knew where the BRAWNS were at.

…..

The sky was really starting to piss her off. It never changed! Who'd of thought that she would miss something as simple as the change in light. Not having a night and day was totally messing with her. She had to keep checking her com to check the time and the lack of darkness and light was making it hard to sleep, her body thought it was still day time. The sky was as if you were stuck waiting for a storm to pass but it never did. It just stay the same dreary purple color!

Sighing Mallory walked on.

Nothing. There was nothing. "No wonder Lucretia was so willing to get close to me, this is even starting to get to me now."

The red headed striker of the mighty ducks was ready to have a slight tantrum when she step into something squishy. Looking down in curiosity she lifted her foot to see a dark brown substance on her shoe. "That better not be shit!... Then again considering the situation maybe that would be a good thing. Another form of life. Hopefully friendly." Upon closer inspection she realized that it wasn't dung but mud. Mud meant water. Moving a little faster now she come out of the rocky terrain to a large pond of water.

"Yes! Thank the stars! I can take a bath now!" She cried out while pumping her fists. Dipping her foot in she watched the mud drift off of her shoe. Searching the water she found that she could see all the way down to the bottom of the pond. Nothing in it to grab her and eat her. Hooray.

Striping down she went in and dipped her head under to wet her hair. Pushing it back out of her face, the female duck smiled at being able to wash herself. The water was cold but it felt good. Leaning back she relaxed against a rock and enjoyed the feel of her feathers floating around herself.

"I'm jealous." Mallory turned quickly and grabbed her gun to see Lucretia standing on the other side watching her. "You've made more progress in one week then I've made the whole time I've been here. Following you was a good move."

"Don't you know it's rude to intrude on someone's bath time." Mallory growled, placing her gun down close to herself. "Get lost Lucretia." Instead of getting lost, the female did the opposite. She striped down and joined Mallory in the water. "I said get lost **not** join me."

"I can do what I want." Lucretia leaned back on another rock, closing her eyes and ignoring Mallory's glare.

Unwilling to let the other female ruin her bath, she leaned back to relax but kept a close eye on the enemy. Lucretia may have been trying to make friends with her but that wasn't going to happen. Once someone tries to trick her and kill her whole team, that person was permanently on her shit list and Lucretia held a prominent position there.

"You know the first thing I'm going to do when I get out of here... Is dye my hair to a color that is not purple." Lucretia announced glaring at the sky.

Mallory didn't say anything despite the snide comments she was dying to throw the traitor's way. She didn't want to engage Lucretia and encourage her to continue following her. When someone is so desperate for company even hostile company is better then none.

"Do you miss them? Your friends?..." Lucretia looked at Mallory waiting for an answer, she got none. "Do you think they miss you?..." Still no answer. "I bet they aren't even trying to figure out a way to get you back. They abandon you, you know that right?"

"Enough of the twenty questions. I don't want to talk to you. Except it." Mallory looked back up at the sky.

"Hum..." Lucretia came a little closer to Mallory, making the pretty red head tense. "You know were going to have to get along... We're all we've got now."

"... I'd rather have no one."

"So stoic." Lucretia giggled, walking towards Mallory with a sway. Mallory grabbed her gun, letting Lucretia know not to take another step. She paused and smirked at Mallory, stopping were she was and staying in the middle of the pond. "I said I wouldn't try to hurt you." She fake pouted, acting coy and trying to be seductive.

Mallory was disgusted and stunned by the way Lucretia was acting, she was acting like she did with Nosedive and Duke when she wanted them to do some for her. "You must have hit your head or being here really has messed you up. I'm a female Lucretia and not interested in you in anyway. Trying to be seductive with me won't work. What is this a default move you pull with men to get your way? Don't be stupid." Mallory scolded.

It was the first time she saw rage cross Lucretia's face. Mallory laughed. "Ha ha. Oh this is too much! You actually though you could seduce me! Haha. Sorry Lucretia but your just not that good." Mallory stood up and made her way to where her clothes were laying. Not bothered that she was naked in front of another female.

"You may change you tune being suck here alone." Lucretia said, seeing Mallory freeze mid step and turn to her with a incredulous look on her face. 

"Are you serious?"

The female duck in the water smirked. "Even base animals do it some times Mallory."

"Why don't you just tell me why your really following me and not play it off as you trying to get with me?" Mallory wanted to skip around the bullshit. Lucretia wanted something specific from her she just didn't know what it was.

Lucretia didn't say anything at first, she just stared at Mallory, contemplating. Mallory turned away and Lucretia finally spoke. "If there is anyway out of here, it's most likely with you." She admitted.

"And what makes you say that?" Mallory put her clothes back on while waiting for an answer.

"Because you've only been here a couple of days and you've found more and gotten further then I have in my whole time here. Which has been over half a year by the way."

"Hum... that's pretty pathetic."

"Shut up."

"And say I do get you out of here, how is that in any way a benefit for me?" Lucretia smirked but Mallory interrupted what she was going to say. "Offer yourself and that is a good way to get yourself stranded. Also shot... and weren't you threatening to slit my friend and leaders throat not too long ago?"

"I can promise never to come after him-"

"I can make sure that doesn't happen by leaving you here." Mallory interrupted.

"I can help you take down Dragaunus. I know his weaknesses."

"Yeah you've offered that before. Remember what happened last time? I certainly do." Mallory put her gun in her holster.

"... I can sneak in a get a teleporter for you. Return you to Puckworld."

That gave Mallory pause but she shook her head. "Nah Duke could do the same and probably do it better."

"Look! You can't leave me here!"

"Yeah I can! In fact that is exactly what I plan to do. Toodles." Mallory mockingly waved goodbye to the other duck, having a hissy-fit in the water.

"Just you wait Mallory! I'll get you for this!"

"Don't take rejection well do ya!" Mallory called back, waving over her shoulder as she walked away. She knew Lucretia wouldn't shoot her, as far as Lucretia was concerned Mallory was her only ticket out of here, so she wouldn't dare risk that.

…..


	3. Chapter 3

I don't own the Mighty Ducks.

Left Behind

Chapter 3:

She turned the gold object back and forth in her hands as she walked, trying to figure out what it went to. Her fingers caressed the rounded edges and the smooth surface. "What could this go too?" She wondered. It didn't go to any weapons she knew about. She looked at her com again to check the time, seeing that it was mid afternoon, she was about to close her com when she looked at the cover to her's and back at the golden cover in her hand. It was the same.

" _Canard! Canard had a golden communicator! He survived the worm attack otherwise this wouldn't be here!" "_ YES!" Mallory cheered to no one in particular, throwing her arms in the air in a small victory dance. To anyone looking they would have thought she lost her mind but Mallory didn't care. Chances are that he was alive and she was going to find him, then together, they were getting outta dodge!

With new energy in her step she continued her search.

…..

So far her search had turned up nothing.

Limbo was expansive, he could be anywhere. Would he be crazy from being stuck here for so long? What if he wasn't alive? What if something on the ground got to him...No. She didn't get to spend much time with him as a fighter but from what she saw she knew he was good. If anything Canard was a survivor. She would not stop searching for him unless she found evidence that proved without a shadow of a doubt he was dead.

Mallory's feet screamed at her with every step she took. She really wanted to stop but why bother, she was barely able to sleep as it was thanks to the never changing sky. Soon though she would have to stop and sleep, she couldn't go on like this forever. Maybe she could find some more water to soak her feet in. The bones in the balls of her feet were what hurt her the most, a close second was her leg muscles. The muscles in her thighs and calves burned in protest as she used them to lift herself over some of the large rocks in the landscape.

Lifting herself over a particularly high rock she got a glimpse of something moving in the distance. "What was that?" It was pretty far off so she wasn't worried but she didn't want to draw attention to herself that she didn't need... like from another creature that wanted to eat her. Shivering as she thought about the last creature with the freakishly long tongue and ugly blue fur. If it had gotten her into it's mouth, it would have bitten her in half. Mallory walked for twenty more minutes before she decided to check and see where that creature was at. Climbing up again she peered over the rocks to see that it had gained great distance and was headed speedily towards her location. "Crap." She muttered, as she searched for a place up high to hid. "Bingo!" Jumping up she made quick work of getting to the ledge fifteen feet up, using a corner where she used her leg strength to hop from stone to stone to reach it. It was hard considering how tired her legs were but she was tough.

Looking around the stone, at it's progress she almost jumped at seeing it maybe 100 feet from her previous location. Now that it was closer she could really get a good look at it. It was something she had never seen before, it's strange almost see through pale skin had ugly black veins creeping over it's bald body. It's eyes were blood shot and black drool dipped from it's mouth, that held a full set of small but sharp flesh shredding teeth in a long snout. It stumbled around on it's four legs, acting disoriented, like it was dizzy. It turned it's head in circles as it made huffing noses, like it was difficult to breath. It opened it's jaws trying to bite the air currents around it. _"If I didn't know better I'd say this thing had some form of rabies."_ She thought as she watched it. _"It's definitely sick."_

The creature swayed on it's feet. The thing stumbled into the rock she was hiding on but didn't notice her there. Getting this close it smelled sick. Mallory covered her nose, trying not to breath in the strong smell of ammonia coming off of this thing. It went to where she stood previously and used it's vampire bat like nose to sniff at the ground. It was trying to track her.

As it started following the path she took when the noise of sliding rocks caught it's attention. Lucretia stumbled out of the rocks, right in the creatures path. Double shit. That sucked for her. Mallory shook her head at the duck who just served herself on a platter for lunch. Lucretia was frozen in horror at the monster standing before her, clearly frightened and not thinking. She just stood there while the thing stared at her and turned towards her. It bared it's teeth and reared up on it's hid legs like a bear but pushing it's head back like a snake ready to strike. It stood a good ten feet tall on it's hind legs, it's very sharp claws, which were dripping that black liquid, where positioned like it was going to pounce on her... and she still just stood there, staring in abject horror. _"Is she stupid or something? Oh wait... yes."_

Finally her brain caught up with her and she ran, the thing was right a her heels. Mallory watched them race away, fully intending to leave Lucretia at the mercy of that monster. Mallory jumped down ready to move one when she heard Lucretia scream. It was a scream of true terror and despite being a terrible person, Mallory released she couldn't leave her like that.

"Crap. Why do I have to have a conscience? She would so not do this for me." Mallory grumbled rushing to Lucretia's rescue. She found her stuffed in a small corner that the creature couldn't get into. It reached it's long claws for the purple haired duck, carving up stone as it did and shifting the rocks around, trying to wiggle in to get to her. Mallory rolled her eyes at Lucretia, she couldn't have picked a worse spot, if it didn't eventually get her then the rocks it was shifting around would crush her.

"HEY UGLY!" The creature didn't take notice of Mallory at first but once she threw at rock at it's head she got it's attention. Pulling out her gun she set it to lethal pucks. "That's it. Right here." She said as she backed up, the pale bald creature turned to her, slowly approaching on it's four legs. It stumbled forward, swaying from side to side a little but it's blood shot eyes remained focused on her.

"Lucretia when I say shoot the puck ropes at it's legs." Lucretia grabbed her gun with shaking hand and nodded.

Once it lifted up on it's hid legs in the strike position Mallory yelled out her order. "NOW!"

Lucretia didn't do at all what she asked her to do. Instead she used a grapple hook in her gun and swung her way out of the situation. "COWARD!" Mallory yelled, shooting the thing with her lethal pucks right in it's chest but it wasn't enough to bring it down. It charged her and Mallory jumped out of the way to avoid it's teeth, however she couldn't avoid it's claws. Two claws sliced into the side of her right thigh. She fell to her side with her gun still in hand. She didn't want to kill this thing at first but it was leaving her no choice. She was hoping to tie it up and leave it, it would get lose eventually but thanks to Lucretia, that wasn't possible.

It fell face first into a rock, slowly it got to it's feet, breathing heavily from the gunshot wound to the chest. She could hear blood start to fill it's lungs with each breath it took. It started running at her but she grabbed her gun and shot it right in the forehead, blowing it's brains out the back of it's head and putting it is down for the count. At least it was out of it's misery now.

Getting up Mallory put weight on her one leg and almost screamed, it burned like it was on fire. Looking down at her leg she could see the black fluid from it's claws had gotten into the cut. Shit.

Mallory limped away from the dead monster, she needed to find a stream and fast. She had to wash this or who knows what would happen. "When I get my hands on that purple headed bimbo... I might kill her myself." She raged. She saved Lucretia's life only to have the bitch turn around and feed her to the wolves, or in this case giant rabies infected monster.

Limping over to a large rock, she climbed up as best as she could and searched for water. Likely for her there was a body of water not far from her but it wasn't going to be easy to get too, not with her leg like this. It was going to require her to do some climbing.

Once off of the rock she kept her gun out in case she was attacked. Limping towards the location of the water she pushed through the pain that burned in her leg. Thirty minutes of limping and climbing over rocks and she had finally made it to the waters edge. She was covered in sweat and panting. Not wasting any time she cleaned her leg the best to her abilities. Making sure all of the black fluid was out of it she gently pried the deep cuts open by the edges of her torn flesh with her fingers so she could better look inside the cut. There didn't seem to be any more black in there but that didn't mean she was in the clear, actually the chances of her getting sicker where high. She needed to disinfect the wound some how. The chances that the water was sterile was pretty slim, she would need to boil it some how.

But she didn't have a bowl! It was the only thing she didn't have and it was the most essential. This just wasn't looking good for her. "Okay McMallory think about your training! If you don't have one thing then make it up some how!" She could try to find a rock shaped like a bowl but chances of that were slim to none. What could she do? What held water well that you could heat it with? Hummm... Leather!

Getting up Mallory limped the thirty minutes back to the dead creature and pulled out her knife. This was going to be gross...

Mallory limped back to the water her hands covered in black fluid, large square of skin in her hand as she limped going to the waters edge she cleaned the skin and herself to the best of her ability. Finding some high rocks she made a place for a fire and used wood to start one. Then used rope and wood to hang the skin over the fire. The heat from the fire would rise up and burn away any unwanted disease on the skin. Then she would scrape away any unwanted flesh or burnt pieces. She placed fist sized rocks in the fire to heat them, once they were properly heated she would placed them in the leather sack with the water and bring it to a boil that way. Gotta love Puckworld Special Forces training!

Once the leather was done, she went back to the water and used the skin to get the water and wrapped a rope around it, making sure not to spill. As she worked she could feel her leg burning more and more. She needed to hurry. Quick as she could she hung the pack up near the fire and used extra pieces of leather to get the rocks and place them in the leather sack. She could hear them steaming as they plunged into the cold liquid. She just had to keep doing this and soon she would have sterile water to clean her wound with. Within minutes she had the water boiling, leaving the rocks in the sack, she let it cool down to the point that she could us it.

Carefully she angled the sack over her leg and poured the hot water into her cuts. Breathing heavily to get through it, she wanted to whimper at the pain. "I hope this works." She panted, trying her best to tough it out. Once she felt the wound was sufficiently clean she used more pieces of leather to cover the wound and wrap it tight. Tying it off Mallory was finally done. She leaned back against the rock behind her and looked out over the lands. Maybe someone would see her smoke and come or maybe she would attract more of those creatures. That was a risk she couldn't take but if Canard was out there and saw the smoke signal then maybe he would start heading in her direction.

Since she decided that she was going to leave the fire going, she would need a more hidden spot. One of the trees had a perfect spot twenty feet up. It wasn't going to be fun but she could do it. Using her puck gun, she fired a grapple hook at a limb and used it to help her up. Once tucked safely in the tree she settled in for some much needed rest.

…..


	4. Chapter 4

I don't own the Mighty Ducks.

Left Behind

Chapter 4:

The world was swaying around her. She felt a breeze on her hot face as her eyes tried to take in her surroundings. Why was she so dizzy? What was wrong with her? She was lethargic too. She could see the ground moving under her as and booted feet carried her away. Why was she looking at the back of someone's feet?

Not caring she closed her eyes and fell back into slumber. See was so tired that she didn't even bother to ponder what that beeping noise was?

…..

Pain.

Oh stars make it stop! Her leg was being cut into. What was going on?! Was someone trying to eat her?! She went to smack whatever was attacking her but her hands were restrained.

"Stop Mallory! Or I'll have to tie you up!"

"No! Stop!"

"You'll get sicker if I don't!"

"What are you doing?"

"I'm cutting away the dead, rotting flesh that's been infected. So stop fighting."

Mallory sat up to stop the assailant again. She was so weak and delirious from fever that she couldn't comprehend that this being was trying to save her.

"You've given me no choice." One hand grabbed the back of her neck and squeezed a pressure point, she was out before she knew what happened.

…..

It was dark when she awoke again, her vision was blurry at best and her body was hot with fever. Her leg screamed mercilessly at her from whatever happened to her earlier. She went to sit up but two hands pushed her back into the ground.

"Stay down." A male voice, whispered.

"Who are you?"

Said being snickered. "Don't recognize me." He asked, slowly he brought his head down. Once in her vision she realized that he was a duck.

"I can barely see." She groaned. A hand touched her head and she moaned at the contact. His had was so cold, it didn't feel good.

"I'll be right back. We need to bring your fever down." Said being got up. She laid there her sluggish brain not understanding what was happening.

She could hear footsteps coming back. They sounded different. A smaller hand touched Mallory's head making her shift away from it. The blurry being had purple surrounding their head. "Lucretia." Mallory mumbled. She could see her nodded then lean over and with surprising strength lift Mallory up and threw her over her shoulder.

"Put. Her. Down." A gun cocked behind them and Lucretia turned to find a very handsome duck standing at the caves entrance, gun pointed at her.

Lucretia did as told and raised her hands in the air. "Look handsome, I'm her friend. I was just worried for her. I didn't know if you were going to try and hurt her. There's no need for the gun baby. I would have no problem surrendering myself to you if that's what you want." She took on a seductive tone.

"Please. I'm know who you are traitor. I learned who was traitors to Puckworld when I went into the resistance. You were one of the worst. I should shoot you right now." The being growled.

"Oh the resistance. Funny. I don't remember your face. What's your name?"

"Canard Thunderbeak." Mallory gasped as hearing his name. He was alive!

"Aw. The one that got stuck here chasing Dragaunus."

Mallory could hear Canard growl at Lucretia. "Canard." Mallory called to him, getting his attention. This gave Lucretia the chance that she needed. She knocked his gun out of his hand and kicked him in the gut. Dashing out of the cave she yelled at him as she ran. "So long sucker!"

Canard cursed but didn't bother giving chase. "Bitch." He mumbled. Grabbing the leather sack of water that he placed on the ground when he saw Lucretia was there. Walking over to Mallory he got on his knees next to her. "We need to bring your fever down. I'm gonna pour cold water over your body." Mallory didn't really respond, she was fading into sleep again."Guess I can't leave you alone for a second Mallory."

He poured the cold water on her, Mallory yelped at how cold it was. "Are you trying to freeze me to death!" She jumped but Canard pushed her back down. She was very awake now.

"No the water's not that cold, your just that hot." Her body shook, at the sudden drop in temperature. It was then that she realized her clothes were gone.

"W-what happened to my clo-clothes?" She shivered so hard her voice shook.

"I took them off to care for you. Did you really want to walk around in wet clothing?" She didn't respond again just shook. "Sleep Mallory you need it to heal." He placed a hand on her forehead. "Huh. Look at that, the fever is already coming down."

Mallory drifted back to sleep, comforted by Canard's hand on her head.

…..

"Hey wake up." Someone was poking her and she didn't like it. "You've slept for three days. Get up."

"What?" She grabbed the offending finger but didn't let go.

"You've slept for three days." Mallory opened her eyes to find Canard staring down at her.

"Canard." She whispered his name in astonishment.

"Yeah I'm still alive. Wonders never cease." He smirked at her. "It's good to see another face. Especially one of my teammates, though I'm not happy to see that your here."

"Huh... Wildwing knew you were alive. Nobody believed him."

Canard smirked at hearing this. "That's my best friend. He was always optimistic. So what happened? How did you get here?"

"Same way you did... sacrificing my life for my friends." She smiled up at him.

He cringed but nodded his understanding. It wasn't a good memory for him and he doubted that it was a good one for her. "How is Wildwing? Is he a good captain?"

Mallory smiled up at him. "The best. I don't even you could have done a better job keeping that flock as a functioning unit."

Canard chuckled at that. "He has a surprising way of making others work together. What about Nosedive? Is he a good addition?"

"He is. He's saved our lives on many occasions."

"Nosedive? Huh, I thought he would have been a burden."

"So did I but he's not." Mallory looked off into the darkness of the cave, thinking about her team, wondering if they mourned her like she would have them. "How did you survive Canard?"

"The electromagnetic-worm dropped me and I landed in a lake. I was lucky." He looked out of the cave at the landscape beyond. "I guess."

"It just dropped you? Don't they need to consume some sort of matter?"

"Yeah and it did. One of my guns." Canard laughed remembering when the worm dropped him in a lake. He had been surprised and then just outright pissed. Damn thing couldn't even finish the job.

"Have you seen others since you've been here?"

"Yeah couple of Brawns and many different... species but not really any other ducks, besides you and that traitor." He sneered while talking about Lucretia. "Did you know she is responsible for the death of at least five thousand Puckworldian's from her spying for Dragaunus?"

Mallory gasped hearing this number. "Five thousand!? I should have shot her when I had the chance!"

"Trust me I was tempted to as well but I didn't want you to get hurt."

"Would've been worth it to take her out." Mallory growled.

"Not to me." Canard stared down at the angry duck. Mallory calmed herself, knowing that she was letting her temper get the better of her.

"Your right. I'm just... grumpy. As I'm sure you know, it hasn't been easy." She motioned down to her leg.

"Yeah well get used to this cause I haven't been able to find a way out."

"I might have one." Mallory sat up, using her arms to hold her upper body up. "The Brawns. They can get in and out of limbo as they please."

"Yeah but going near any of them is certain death. Trust me I've tried. I almost got my head blown off." Canard crossed his arms, thinking about the indecent that almost killed him.

"Yeah they are aggressive... if they don't know you."

"And you know them?"

"As a matter of fact I do." Mallory smiled.

"How?"

"From back on Earth, when Dragaunus sent a Brawn to-"

"Earth?"

"Yeah where we ended up after chasing Dragaunus through limbo when we lost you. Now let me finish. Dragaunus captured a Brawn and reprogrammed him to attack us instead. We finally were able to knock him out and re-reprogram him so that he would go back to capturing Dragaunus. One thing led to another and we stopped Dragaunus but Brawn's body was destroyed. We kept his head which was still functioning. I would go grab him and talk to him." Canard raised an eyebrow at that. "I was curious. Anyway don't give me that look cause if I wasn't so curious, we wouldn't have a possible way out of here. Anyway, I asked about other Brawns and it turns out they share minds. It makes them a more effective unit. Even then when I was talking to him he said he was still sending information back to the others in limbo. He said that if I were to ever approach them, they wouldn't attack like they would with most. So there is a good chance that we can get out of here with their help."

"I almost got killed approaching them but if you believe that it will work then it's worth a shot. But we need to have a plan in case they do attack you. I won't risk you getting killed."

"Alright. I can't argue with that." Mallory smirked. "Do you happen to know where the Brawns are?"

"Yeah they have several stations and prisons here. There is one a weeks walk from here. There's only one problem... with your injured leg, moving quickly will be an issue so it's going to be more like a week and a half if we're lucky."

"Yeah but it's better then not getting there at all." She looked at Canard and studied his handsome features. He really was a handsome duck, she had never noticed before. His bangs were hanging just over his dark brown eyes, giving him a rugged look.

"Alright if you say so. We'll give it a try." Canard went to lean against the wall across from Mallory, that way he could keep an eye on her and make sure Lucretia doesn't try to come steal her again. "Drink some of that water next to you. It's clean." Mallory nodded and grabbed the cup. She trusted Canard completely so she had no issues eating or drinking anything given to her. Not that she needed it here but while injured she would need it to regain all of her strength faster."

"When do we move?" She asked. He was looking out over the landscapes beyond the cave, he looked lost in his own world. He looked sad and lonely, like he forgot she was there. "Canard?"

His head snapped to her and he blinked a couple of times. "What?"

"You okay?" She sat up and leaned on her elbows, watching him carefully for any signs that she needed to be worried about.

"Yeah... It's just..." His eyes traced her face, he seemed to be relishing in the company of another being. "Having someone here is all that I wanted and now that you are... I can't help but feel selfish at the thought that I'm happy your here with me. I'm happy your here in limbo with me because I was so lonely..." Mallory watched him with understanding eyes, it made him shift uncomfortably. "Seems pretty messed up, don't you think."

"No... Anyone in this situation would think the same thing. Hell even Lucretia wanted to make friends with me cause she was lonely and she tried to kill me back on Earth!"

Canard chuckled at that. "I guess your right."

"No seriously that girl is messed up. She tried to seduce me in a lake while I was bathing. She really must have lost her mind here to think that kind of thing would work on me." Mallory laid back down and crossed her arms, glaring at the ceiling. "Besides do I look like I'm into chicks! NO!"

"That's... weird." Canard wasn't sure what to say to that.

"Tell me about it." Mallory mumbled.

Canard didn't think really know Lucretia, he just knew about her. Generally he liked to gather more information about his enemies before he had to deal with them but in this situation with Mallory injured, he couldn't leave her alone. She was coherent now but that was after being unconscious for three days and during that time, Lucretia had always been lurking nearby. Waiting for an opportunity to grab Mallory, because of this Canard refused to leave Mallory's side for anything.

"So when do we move Canard." Mallory asked again.

"When your able." He crossed his arms and closed his eyes, just taking a moment to rest.

"You can sleep if you want. I'll keep watch." Mallory realized he must have been tired, she wanted to help him in anyway she could.

"Thanks Mallory but for the time being I'm going to need to stay on watch. Lucretia is lurking around out there, waiting for the opportune moment to snatch you out from under me.

"Let her try! I'll blow her sky high!" She sneered, she hated that duck more and more everyday.

"I can't risk it. Your still feeling the effects of that wound. You might not be able to fight off the need to sleep. Besides, I don't mind. I've gone so long without a companion that I don't think I could sleep if I wanted to. I'm a little nervous that I'll wake up and you won't actually be here. That it was all just a dream."

Mallory didn't say anything to that. Canard had suffered here. That was clear. "Canard-"

"Don't worry, I'm fine. Better then I've been in a long time." He smiled at her almost affectionately? She couldn't quite tell but chose not to think about it. It was going to be a hard journey. She wanted to tell Canard how happy everyone was going to be to see him again, especially Wildwing and Nosedive but she was worried that she might make him sad instead, so kept her thoughts on the subject to herself.

…..

She fell asleep without even meaning to. Canard had been right to not let her take watch. Opening her eyes she found Canard had fallen asleep,without meaning to as well. Poor guy must have been exhausted. He started shifting in his sleep like he was having a bad dream, suddenly he sat up and looked around frantically. Before his eyes could land on her though she closed hers again to make it seem like she was asleep. She didn't really know why she had done it. Listening to his frantic breathing, she told herself it was cause she wanted him to have a moment to compose himself, so that he didn't feel like he had been caught sleeping on the job. She could feel his eyes on her and his breathing finally evened out. The sound of rocks and pebbles scrapping under his boots, told her that he had stood up. He approached her quietly, pebbles crushing under his feet. He finally stopped next to her and squatted down closer to her level. Mallory kept her eyes closed and wondered what he was doing. Briefly she pondered opening her eyes to see what he was doing but chose against it. It was when she felt the gently and warm touch of his fingers on her cheek that she realized what he was doing, making sure that she was really there. His breath brushed through her hair as he leaned down towards her, examining her face as she 'slept'. She kept her body limp, trying not to give away that she was awake, she didn't want to embarrass him. Finally his fingers moved away from her cheek and he stood, walking to the front of the cave.

She could still feel where his fingers had been touching her skin. It was warm and gentle. She could almost feel his relief when his fingers had touched her cheek. Confirming that she was still here. _"Poor Canard."_ She thought. Ducks were very social, they didn't do well on their own, so it was amazing that Canard wasn't insane from being here by himself for as long as he was. Not wanting to think about it anymore, Mallory drifted back to sleep, with her previous leader watching over her.

…..


	5. Chapter 5

I don't own the Mighty Ducks.

Left In Limbo

Chapter 5:

She groaned at how uncomfortable she was. Not to mention she needed another bath in a major way. It had been five days since she had a real bath. Groaning she sat up and looked to see Canard sharpening his utility knife. "I need a bath. Is there a lake nearby?" Canard looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Sure. There's a lake maybe about a five-minute walk from here. I choose this spot for a reason." He smirked.

"Great! Then I'm off to take a bath. I stink." She got up slowly, careful of her leg. Canard, stood up and made sure she was fine. "I'll be back soon." She said planning on taking a nice long, relaxing bath.

"Uh no. You're not going alone. I'm going with you." He crossed his arms, as if it wasn't negotiable.

"Uh... What?"

"You heard me Mallory."

"No really. I'll be fine by myself." Mallory leaned against the wall

Canard stared at her unconvinced. "There's no way I'm letting you go alone."

Mallory looked Canard in the eyes, staring him down. "Listen here Canard..."

Two minutes later...

"Put me down! I mean it!" Mallory yelled trying to grab anything that would give her some leverage. She was unsuccessful.

"I'm just looking out for your best interests." He smirked, walking towards the lake with a very annoyed Mallory over his right shoulder. His hands held her legs down to his front so she couldn't kick while she smacked at his back. Mallory threatened different body parts on him, hoping that he would let her go only to find he was unaffected by her threats. Finally, she gave up and just watched the ground pass under his feet, listening to the sound of the stones and gravel crunching under his boots as he walked. The gravel soon gave way to dark blue grass and black mud, a sign that they were nearing a body of water. "Here we are!" Canard announced a little too smugly. Gently he placed her on her feet again. Mallory was relieved to be off of his shoulder, it had been digging into her stomach and was starting to hurt. She limped towards a large boulder only to be grabbed by Canard again. She looked at him confused but he didn't answer only started dragging her towards the water.

"I really don't need your help. I've got it from here." She went to push his hands away but she was too weak.

"Yeah okay." He mumbled sarcastically at her pathetic attempt to remove his hand.

"I mean it Canard." She growled but still he didn't listen.

"Alright strip down to your underwear and I'll take care of your leg."

"Canard!"

"That's an order." Mallory sighed as he turned away and took off his top and pants.

"Mind as well get it over with." She mumbled to herself, striping down to her underwear. Once she was striped Canard picked her up and carried her further into the water where it was a little deeper. Gently he washed her leg with green liquid from a bag and inspected the healing wound, it was doing nicely. He smiled and nodded at his good work.

"It's looking better every day."

"Oh good. For second there I was worried I would never have a private bath again." She mumbled, referring to his wanting to watch her every second because of her injury.

"I'm only looking out for your safety. No need to be sour." He smirked handsomely at her. Mallory's could only stare at him as he looked away into the forest scanning it for danger. She studied his face and chiseled upper body. No doubt girls were all over Canard back on Puckworld. Thinking of this only made her think of her other friends stranded back on Earth. At least they had each other, poor Canard didn't have anyone here. She had to remind herself of that when she became annoyed with his over protectiveness. Sighing she got on with cleaning her body, she didn't have any soap but the water would have to do. Canard saw her attempting to clean her skin with the water, he surprised her when he handed her a pouch of the thick green liquid. "Here I made this with herbs and other ingredients here. It's basically primitive soap. It does the job pretty well."

Mallory took it with a big smile. "Thanks! Look at you knowing how to make soap." She smirked.

Canard laughed, "Yeah something I learned from my father back on Puckworld when I was younger. He used to take me hunting and sometimes we would run out of soap while out in the wilderness. So he showed me how to make it. I was lucky that the planets here are pretty much the same as on Puckworld." A sad light entered Canard's eyes for a moment. "I miss my family."

"You'll see them again soon Canard. We are getting out of here." Mallory assured him with more conviction then she actually felt. It seemed to cheer him up. "Wonder what the others will do when they see you again?" She asked herself out loud, wanting to distract Canard.

"Ha. Probably not think I'm real. That would be my reaction." He said, watching as Mallory turned away from him to take off her bra so she could wash the rest of her body. His eyes traced her back and smooth skin and feathers. She was very beautiful. He thought so when he first saw her.

"Can you hold this for me?" She brought her arm back behind her, using the other to cover her breasts. She was turned just slightly to look back at him. Seeing him staring at her the way he was made her blush at little. He snapped out of it when he looked up at her face.

"Oh yeah… Sure." Taking the bra from her with a small blush over his own cheeks. Mallory pretended not to notice and turned back around to finish washing. Once they were both done taking a bath and Mallory's bra was back on, Canard carried Mallory out of the water, she didn't complain this time. Dressed and refreshed they went back to the cave cautiously, being careful in case DeCoy planned an ambush. When they found all was safe they went back in to rest for the night.

…..

Two days of staying in the cave and Mallory was able to walk around on her own without assistance. She wasn't able to run yet but she was doing well enough that they began planning their escape from limbo.

Meanwhile Lucretia lingering along their camp waiting for the opportune moment to strike. She would have taken out Canard the night before if Mallory hadn't been on guard. The two ducks took turns sleeping throughout the night. Usually Canard was on the lookout since Mallory was healing but now that Mallory was getting better the red head had taking to switching with Canard as lookout. Lucretia cursed Canard again for never letting Mallory out of his sight, it made it impossible for her to snatch the injured red head. To top it off Mallory was healing and would be at full strength soon, so taking her would be difficult now that she could fight back. No matter, they were planning their escape from this place and would soon begin to travel.

Her plan now was to follow at a distance and grab Mallory when she was vulnerable. Then she would hold Mallory hostage and make the brawns let her out of here. Once she was through the portal with Mallory she would shoot her in the head and be on her marry way. It would all come together nicely for her. In the meantime, she planned on enjoying her time following and playing head games with these two. Maybe she could get them to turn on each other, that would get Canard out of the picture…

…..


	6. Chapter 6

I don't own the Mighty Ducks.

Left In Limbo

Chapter 6:

Canard paced the cave's entrance, he feet leaving tracks that slowly dug deeper into the ground with every step. He knew she wanted her privacy but he couldn't get this gut wrenching feeling out of his stomach. What if something happened to her? What if Lucretia attacked and Mallory wasn't able to defend herself, she was still healing. Grant it she could move around just fine without help now but it didn't stop him from worrying. They had been by each other's side for almost three solid weeks now. It was uncomfortable to not have her by him. "Screw it." He said, grabbing his gun and leaving the cave. "I don't care if she gets pissed. She's not leaving my sight again. It's too dangerous here."

He was at the lake in half the time it usually took him to get there. What he came across was something he wasn't prepared for. Mallory wasn't there. Her clothes and gear were on the bank but she was nowhere to be found. "Damnit. I knew I shouldn't have left her!" He scanned the mud around the lake, looking for any signs of Mallory's or someone else's foot prints. What he found disturbed him. Mallory's foot prints lead to the lake but they didn't lead away however there was a different set of prints there, similar in size to Mallory's but different shoes. High heeled boots, Lucretia. She had been standing here recently. The marks in the ground were fresh. Her prints lead back into the forest before him. He pulled his gun out, slowly following the prints until he heard movement in the water behind him. Canard turned quickly to aim his gun at the water and waited for something to come up.

Finally, red hair broke the surface. Mallory pushed her hair back out of her face while keeping her eyes closed. Canard watched with his jaw dropped as Mallory stood up so that the water came to her hips. She didn't realize she was giving Canard a free show as the water cascaded down her body, dripping off her curves and leaving her silhouette shiny even under the gloomy purple sky of this world. She was gorgeous. When she opened her green eyes, she was greeted with the sight of Canard aiming a gun at her with his mouth hanging open and his eyes ready to pop out of his head. Her eyes widened in surprise and she yelped, covering her chest with her arms and ducking back into the water. Canard, surprised by Mallory's reaction, lost his balance on the slippery mud and fell back on his butt.

"What's wrong with you!? I was just taking a bath!" Mallory yelled swimming to her gear and started throwing things at poor Canard.

"Wow! Wow. Wait! This is a misunderstanding!" He threw his arms up blocking the flying objects from hitting his face. "Mallory stop! That's an order." That seemed to do the trick. She waited patiently for him to explain with a rock in her hand, ready to be launched at him should she dislike his explanation.

"I had a horrible feeling. My instincts were telling me that something was wrong and they haven't been wrong once so far. So I came thinking you were in danger and I was right. Look." He pointed to the bank where Lucretia's foot prints were still in the mud. Mallory followed where he was pointing and gasped realizing that she was being watched by an enemy. "She was here but she heard me coming and was spooked off. Who knows what would have happened if I didn't get here when I did. So that being said, from now on you don't go anywhere without me. She's still out there waiting for the right moment. I'm not going to give it to her. So screw your privacy. I don't care anymore." Canard stood up and walked to the edge of the water with his arms crossed. "We're both adults, we can handle being undressed in front of each other."

Mallory didn't say anything. How could she? Canard had most likely saved her from a possible kidnapping. Instead she just nodded, grabbed her clothes and got dressed. The walk back was fairly awkward. Canard wasn't sure what to say now. He hadn't been prepared for the beautiful sight she was when he saw her half naked. He swallowed, his mouth going dry at the memory. Mallory still had a slight tint to her cheeks from being seen naked by Canard. He certainly seemed surprised when she opened her eyes. Briefly she wondered what he thought of her but shook the thought off as soon as it entered her mind. " _Seriously McMallard. You have bigger issues to deal with right now then wonder if Canard finds you attractive."_ She scolded herself. Her mind wondered to Lucretia and how she was basically stalking her now. It was creepy. She shivered remembering Lucretia's attempts to seduce her and when she tried to steal her from the cave.

Canard noticed her shiver and was concerned. "You okay?" He asked, voice his deep and smooth. The sound of it sent goose bumps over her skin. The feelings his voice caused were new and confusing. If not a little alarming.

"I'm fine." She answered a little too quickly.

"You don't seem it. What's up?" He placed a hand on her shoulder, wanting to give some physical form of comfort. The heat from his hand soaked through her suit and warmed her shoulder.

"Just a little cold I guess." She said wanting to brush off the conversation. Canard wasn't convinced but he let it slide, knowing that Mallory just didn't want to talk about it. It wasn't his place to push, despite how bad he wanted to know what she was thinking. He realized that he was being a little… overbearing with Mallory. But could you blame him? He had been here alone for a year. So when a familiar face arrived he was only too happy to have someone with him. The first couple days of taking care of her were touch and go. For a while he was wondering if she was going to make it but she pulled through and while she rested he often watched over her. It gave him time to study her. She was a beautiful duck. He found himself contemplating what would have happened if he hadn't gotten stuck in limbo.

They made it back to the cave and Canard started a fire. Once that was done he walked over to where Mallory had found a spot to sit. "Let's take a look at your leg." He sat down cross legged, next to her. She nodded and placed her leg in his lap like they always did when he was tending to it. He was gentle as he unwrapped her bandages around her leg. His fingers grazed her bare skin and Mallory repressed a shiver. What was with her lately? While he studied her leg, Mallory studied his face, taking in his handsome features. Was it odd that she found him more and more attractive every day? Maybe it was this place?

"It looks great. You've healed nicely. Soon you will barely feel it." He smirked charmingly at her and applied more antibacterial paste, then rewrapped her leg with new bandages. "Is that better?" He asked, his fingers lingering on her thigh.

"Yeah, thanks." She smiled gently removing her leg from his lap. He let his fingers slip away from her leg and clenched them in a fist in his lap. Canard reluctantly released her leg, he wanted more contact with her. Using the excuse to check her leg as a way of being near her and touching her more. He knew this was a little pathetic but he took comfort from contact with someone else. Before when he was taking care of her, he would help her stand, let her lean on him to get places, sometimes help her wash. Now that she was getting better, she could do these things herself. He found himself missing and craving her touch. In the beginning it had been just comforting that someone was there with him and touching her had been proof and a reminder that he wasn't alone anymore. But that was in the beginning, it was changing now. He was becoming very attracted to her and he wanted her to reciprocate those feelings.

Mallory leaned back uncomfortably against a large boulder behind her. She was tired. Her eyes snapped open in surprise when she felt Canard settle down next to her. His side pressing into her own. "Canard?"

"Lean on me to sleep. You'll be more comfortable that way. Trust me." He smiled at her and placed a hand around her shoulders and pulled her to him. She didn't resist. He was right, she would be more comfortable sleeping against him.

"What about you?" She asked resting her head against his chest.

"Don't worry. I'll be fine. Besides I'm not tired and someone needs to keep a look out for that traitor." He kept his arm around her.

"Okay. Let me know if you hear something." She mumbled, already falling asleep.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of it…" He watched her sleeping face for a moment, cradling her protectively. "I'll take care of you too Mallory."

…..

The next day Mallory and Canard made their plans on finding the Brawns. "Are you sure about them not attacking you?" Canard asked for what had to be the fifth time.

"Positive. You just get us there. When we arrive I'll do the rest." Mallory said pacing the cave. She wanted to get her leg used to walking around more. She was going to be on it for long distances soon, so she needed to be prepared. Exercising it would help with that. Canard had been concerned for her walking around too soon but Mallory had pushed off his concern much to his dismay.

"Alright it will take us a couple of days to get there and the way there isn't easy. We're going to have to go through dense forest which can be easy to get lost in. Not to mention the creatures in them can be a problem. When we stop for the night, we're gonna want to be up high. So your gonna need to climb a lot. Are you sure your up to this? We can take another day for you to heal."

"I'm sure Canard. Besides the others will be dying to see you." He smiled hearing that. It made him think about Wildwing and Nosedive. They were his best friends growing up, it would be great to see them again. Even if it was on another planet surrounded by strange beings called humans. He thought about the many days here all alone, looking for a sign of life and then finding it and realizing it was unfriendly. Life here had been tough and lonely. He was ready to leave but he was more concerned about Mallory's health. He didn't want anything to happen to her. He had been here a year by himself but now that Mallory is with him he didn't mind waiting one more day.

"Alright but if you don't think you can do it, then I want you to tell me so. If we get caught out there and you relapse. We're as good as dead." Canard wasn't willing to risk Mallory's life.

"I know. I wouldn't plan this if I didn't think I was ready." She took a sit next to him and watched him for a negative reaction. He didn't give one.

"Okay. First thing tomorrow, we're out of here." He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and she surprised him by resting her head on his shoulder. He couldn't help but smile and looked around the cave that he had called home for the past year. He was trying to distract himself but now that he was looking, he felt a little melancholy about leaving the place, as weird as that was. If he hadn't found this cave, then he would have died a long time ago. In a way it saved his life. In the past he had hoped to find a way out and away from this horrible cave but now… he was grateful to it. Shaking the thought off, he hugged Mallory a little tighter to himself. It was time to go. He needed to protect Mallory and get her home safely. That was his main priority now and he would not fail.

…..


	7. Chapter 7

I don't own the Mighty Ducks.

Left in Limbo

That very same night, back in the cave Canard found restless sleep. He kept tossing and turning, nightmares filled his dreams with images of him once again alone in limbo. His endless search to find Mallory had him thrashing in his sleep for hours, until his thrashing caused him to smack his head on the cave wall next to him. He grunted in pain, holding a hand to his head and glaring at the wall beside him. "Son of a- Ouch." Rubbing the sore spot on what was sure to be a new bump, he sat up, realizing that sleep was an impossible endeavor tonight. Looking out the front of the cave at the sky outside, it remained ever unchanging. "If you could call it night." The grumpy duck muttered, hating that there was no night or day here. _"I despise this place."_ The thought drifted through his mind for what must have been the millionth time while stretching his arms over his head.

Standing up he intended to walk out of the cave for just a moment but the sound of Mallory's shaky breath caught his attention. Checking on her, he found her shivering on the cold ground. She looked uncomfortable. He had grown used to the rough ground and no longer had trouble sleeping on it, but Mallory wasn't used to this. Carefully as to not wake her, he gently slid his arms under her knees and under her shoulders, lifting her smaller body off the ground, he sat down cross-legged and placed her in his lap. After ten minutes she stopped shivering and sighed in contentment, curling into him in her sleep to seek warmth. Canard smiled down at her and hugged her closer. He probably shouldn't be doing this, she would most likely wake up soon, but he couldn't help himself. Seeing that she was better he leaned back and rested, within five minutes his eyes became too heavy and slowly slipped closed.

Mallory woke up to the best sleep she'd had in a long time, well since being here anyway. Yet to open her eyes, she stretched her arms out above her head, arching her spine and holding her breath. Her movement caused a groan above her, making her freeze. Realizing now, that she was on something warm, soft, and breathing, her eyes snapped open. Leaning over her, she found Canard resting against the wall with her wrapped in his arms and snuggly placed in his lap. She didn't know what to do. How did she get here? She certain didn't crawl into his lap, did she? Of course not! That's ridiculous… It could only mean that Canard had picked her up and placed her there when she was sleeping. Why would he do that?

Attempting to get away from a sleeping Canard was easier said than done. Slowly she placed one hand on the ground to help lift herself up, she moved one leg out of his lap placing her knee on the floor next to him, then did the same with the other leg. Now on her hands and knees, she slowly started to crawl out of Canard's lap. Just a little further and- "Its not every day I wake up to such a lovely sight." Canard snickered from behind her. Mallory froze, slowly turning to glance over her shoulder at him only to see her butt was kind of in his face. He smirked and wiggled his eyebrows. Mallory stood up quickly and moved to the other side of the cave, a small blush lighting her cheeks. She crossed her arms and looked out the cave, the blush still having not subsided, if anything it was spreading across the top of her beak. "So today's the day. We're going to find the Brawns. Think you'll be ready to go soon?" She asked, trying to think about something else besides Canard's flirting.

"Yeah I'm ready. I'm just concerned about you." He stood up dusting himself off. Walking over to the mouth of the cave, leaning against the wall. He observed the rocks and spars trees of the landscape. They had a lot of ground to cover.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. I'm trained to push through this kind of stuff remember?" She packed the few things that she had and checked her ammo. She would need to conserve it here. "What's your ammo look like?"

He turned to her, his arms still crossed over his chest. "Not good. I have a clip, that's it." Mallory's eyes followed the strong muscles in his arms but quickly brought her eyes back to his face. If he saw her checking his arms out he didn't give any indication that he noticed. "Don't worry about me though. I'm good with a knife."

"What kind of knife?" Mallory asked simply curious.

Canard smirked and pulled out a large knife as long as his forearm. "This kind of knife."

Mallory had seen all kinds of weapons being in the Puckworld Special Forces so this didn't surprise her but she wanted to laugh at how happy he was with how big it was. She raised an eyebrow at him as he wiggled his at her. "Is it a compensation thing?"

That wiped the smile off his face. "What? What makes you say that?"

"Oh you know some men feel they need to get things that are bigger if they're, well you know smaller." She snickered into her hand.

"Definitely not." All the amusement was gone from his face as he looked at her dispassionately from the side of his eyes.

Mallory laughed at his expense while he went about his packing. All joking aside, she wanted to know why he was so low on ammo and gear. "Canard what happened to the rest of your equipment?"

"I lost it in the fall. The only things I had left was one gun and my knife." Mallory wasn't sure if she should be concerned about that. She hadn't really seen any others here but Lucretia was out there waiting for the right moment to attack, what if she got a hold of some of his stuff?

…..

A full day of traveling and both Mallory and Canard were ready to call it a day. They found a stream to bathe in and took turns, Canard went first this time. He scrubbed the green soap into a lather on his body. Washing the sweat and dirt from himself while he thought about Mallory. She had teased him a lot today. Actually they had been teasing each other a lot lately, perhaps bordering on flirting. He wasn't sure about her flirting but he certainly was. The image of Mallory coming out of the water completely naked entered his mind again. She was beautiful. He zoned out, thinking about the beauty sitting not too far from him as he mindlessly scrubbed.

When Canard was done washing his body and he walked out of the water to the shore. There he stood in all his naked glory, ripped arms and stomach muscles with a strong chest. His legs were buff from all the running, climbing, and fighting he had to do here. Mallory was not far from him; her back was facing him while he bathed to give him privacy. She had talked for most of the day but now she was suddenly very quiet. Secretly he was hoped that she was sporting a blush on her cheeks.

The sound of something breaking and crashing came from behind Canard. Both he and Mallory looked back at it. Canard say a tree had fallen over but Mallory's vision had gotten stuck on the very naked Canard, one area in particular. When he turned around he caught her staring at, well his junk. She hadn't even realized he saw her yet. Canard couldn't stop the wicked and smug smirk from crawling across his face, for Mallory looked quite surprised. Feeling devious, he shifted his stance, pulling Mallory out of her trance. "Like what you see?"

Mallory gasped and turned around quickly. Not sure what to say. "Uh sorry… That tree fell over and I was just concerned. I wasn't checking you out." She became more defensive at the end of her explanation.

Canard chuckled at her embarrassment. "Not so small is it Mallory?" Besides he needed to give her a little payback for the harassment he got from her earlier.

"Oh shut up." She huffed, this only made Canard laugh harder. He pulled on some pants and told her it was safe to turn around. A blush still adorned her cheeks as she did. She was about to make a sarcastic comment when she saw that he wasn't wearing a shirt and her eyes became stuck on his chiseled chest. Seeing where Mallory's eyes were looking, he couldn't help but tease her again.

"Mallory, my eyes are up here." He pointed up at his face, imitating exasperation and sincerity.

"You're so full of yourself." She placed her hands on her hips, as if scolding a child.

"Just with you." He pulled his shirt on over his head. "Your turn. Don't worry _**I**_ _**won't**_ peak."

"Yeah right." She muttered sarcastically, walking to the water's edge and checking to make sure Canard wasn't getting a free show. Once confirmed she undressed and slipped into the cold water. Grabbing the pack of green soap Canard made, she got it into a good lather and cleaned her hair and body with it. The sigh that came out was one of contentment. She loved being clean.

Hearing her sigh, Canard twitched in his spot. He itched to glance at her, knowing that she would be a tempting sight. Breathing in deeply he calmed himself, trying to think of something else. He wondered what everyone was up to back at… wherever it was they were at. The sound of gentle splashing could be heard behind him as Mallory bathed. She hummed a soothing little tune; she had never done that before but he liked it. Another sound caught his attention, this one was not soothing, it sounded like a growl. Standing up suddenly to check his surrounds, Canard was tense. Mallory stopped bathing, wondering what he was doing. "Canard?"

"Quiet." He said harshly, his hand on his knife and the other had his gun out. Listening quietly to the sounds around them, the slightest cracking of wood and very gentle crushing of pebbles was coming from the left. Aim his gun at where the sounds came from Canard, stepped sideways towards the stream. "Get out. Get dressed." All humor and friendliness was gone from his person. Quietly as possible, Mallory got to the shore, not caring about how she was standing next to Canard naked. Drying her body with the small cloth she had, she left her hair wet, she would concern herself with that later when she was not in danger. She was about to pull on her pants when it attacked. Dropping her clothes, and diving out of the way, she barely avoids long claws aimed for her. Grabbing her weapons and taking aim at the attacker was difficult. She was too busy jumping away to miss another swipe of large claws.

Canard fired at the beast, it roared and turned its large head on him. This thing made polar bears look small. It stood at least fifteen feet tall. A long serpent like tail swayed back and forth behind it, not like a dog wagging its tail but like it was preparing to use it to strike with. It stood on four legs but unlike the last creature, this one couldn't stand on its hind legs. It was covered in dark scales; its face was that of a lizard but with very big teeth. There were four lines of iridescent dots going down its long back. The thing kind of looked like a Komodo Dragon from Earth but much bigger and the color was all off. It didn't drag its belly along the ground, it's legs were longer and stronger. "Mallory get to safety!" Canard yelled.

Was he serious? Did he think she was going to leave him to deal with this thing alone? No way. She shot the beast's back legs with a puck-rope tying them together. It didn't do much for long. The creature just looked over at her and she could swear that it smirked at her. It tauntingly took one long claw and cut the rope. "It's too smart for that Mallory! Don't waste your ammo." Canard yelled, pulling out his large knife.

The thing took a swipe at him but Canard rolled out of the way, slashing at him. Thinking fast he grabbed a handful of mud and threw it into the monster's right eyes, it flinched back, annoyed but not blinded. "You act like you have experience with this thing." Mallory said while running to Canard.

"That's cause I do."

"Well it seems smart enough. Why is it after you?" She was almost to him when the creature's tail wrapped around her waist and legs, pulling her legs out from under her so fast that she dropped her gun. She tried to reach for it but it dragged her away and lifted her form up in the air, held out of Canard's reach. Unable to do much else, she covered her breasts as she watched Canard fighting the beast from upside down.

"Hey! Give her back!" Canard yelled. The creature taunted him by shaking poor Mallory back and forth as if to say 'nah nah you can't get her'. The red head for her part was getting very dizzy. It wasn't that she was just upside-down but that she was being shaken and twirled every which way. Canard grabbed Mallory's gun and turned it to lethal taking aim at the beast but it saw this and would hold Mallory in front of itself, using her like a shield. "You coward. Let her go and fight me like a man!" It blinked at him and then huffed as if offended. Mallory looked at the creature from her spot above it, really studying it. You couldn't see it from the ground but this thing had wings! Seemingly tired of this fight the creature unfolded them from its back, spreading them out above itself. "Oh no you don't! You're not going anywhere with her!" Canard aimed at it but again it used Mallory like a shield. "Damn you!" He yelled.

With a giant leap the thing was air born with a still captive Mallory. "CANARD! HELP!" Canard moved fast changing the gun he shot a tracking device onto the beast's back leg.

"Don't worry Mallory, I'm coming!" Canard yelled, grabbing her things and taking chase on foot, he was so busy going after Mallory that he didn't realize he had left her com behind.

Out of the shadows, Lucretia walked up and picked up Mallory's com, smiling down at it. "This could be useful." She said, putting it on her wrist and opening it up find Canard's signal on the auto tracker. "Oh my! You've just made my life a lot easier." She said, looking at the bag of soap they were using to wash with. "Why not treat myself." She smirked and took off her clothes to take a bath. Lucretia would catch up with them, not like she could do much when that thing had Mallory. Canard would do the rescue work and Lucretia would take advantage.

…..


	8. Chapter 8

I don't own the Mighty Ducks

Left in Limbo

Mallory was watching the ground far below her as the winged beast carried her across the sky. She couldn't see Canard anywhere. "Great, naked, weaponless, and kidnapped by a monster that's probably going to eat me. Good day." She muttered looking up ahead of them. They were approaching a mountain with a cave carved out of the side of it. It was large and dark, she didn't want to know what fate awaited her in that cave but before it could be contemplated, they arrived. It dropped Mallory unceremoniously on the hard ground. "Ouch!" It didn't bother to check on her as it walked further back. Mallory peered over her arms at it from her spot on the ground, not sure why it hadn't turned on her to try and eat her yet, not that she was complaining. Getting up she dusted herself off as best she could. _"And I just had a bath."_ She thought to herself. Backing up and glancing out of the cave to find there was no way to get out or down without some kind of rope to help her. Turning back, she saw the creature was just watching her, as if waiting for her to realize that escape from here would be a fruitless attempt. This thing was way too smart and she was way too naked. She was too vulnerable like this to fight.

She covered herself as best she could with her hands, trying to stay as far from it as possible but it rolled its eyes and wrapped its long tail around her waist, pulling her closer. Mallory dug her feet into the cold stone of the cave floor, scratching her heels up even though she knew it was useless. When it finally had her beside itself, the beast nodded it head towards the right corridor of the cave. Not sure she was seeing this right, the naked red head continued to stare at it until it grew impatient and nudged her forward with its tail. Turning her eyes to it again, Mallory was surprised to see it nodded its head for her to move in that direction. "Wait! Look your smart and you seem to understand me right?" It watched her for a moment then slowly nodded. "What do you want? Why are you after Canard? And why take me?" Again it nudged her towards the corridor. Mallory glanced at the it then back down the hall. Sighing she moved forward, hoping this thing wouldn't eat her. When she arrived at the room, she couldn't see a thing, until fire shot out from next to her, making her jump in surprise. The creature could breathe fire! Did that make it a type of dragon? Searching the room, she saw it was rounded and in the center was what could only be described as a fire place. The wood in the fire cracked and snapped as it burned, the flame's light danced over the wall, making patterns. Around the fire place were three small mounds of grass and leaves. On the opposite side of the room was one large mound. The creature, now known as a dragon, walked onto the mound and laid down. It stared at Mallory waiting for her to come to the realization of what of going on here.

Sure enough, Mallory realized what she was trying to say. This was a female dragon but not only a female, a mother. Where were her children? "Where are your kids?" It glared, narrowing it eyes at her. Mallory stepped back and held her hands out as a sign of surrender. "Wow! Don't look at me like that. I didn't do anything." It still glared at her. "Is that why you took me because you think Canard took them?" It nodded its head. Mallory sighed. "Canard didn't take your children. Why would he?" It smacked something over in her direction, the metal clicked along the floor, stopping at her feet. It was a gun, not just any gun, it was one of their guns. The white with a grey handle and green markings were easily identifiable. Canard either had been here at some point or someone who took his gun had been. "Yes this is Canard's gun but he has been missing this for a while. It's possible that someone took this from him and used it." The creature seemed unconvinced. "There is another Puckworldian here. Her name is Lucretia DeCoy. I wouldn't be surprised if she was the one who took them but why would she take them?" Mallory asked herself quietly, the Dragon watched her with a curious tilt of her head.

For what felt like hours but was really only one, Mallory curled up in the corner, not able to do much else. Could this get any worse? She was board and the dragon wasn't the best conversationalist. At least it wasn't going to try and eat her anytime soon. She would fight it but she was naked and very vulnerable to fire right now. Her feathers would go up like one of those dry Christmas trees from the human's holidays on Earth. Her species did well with water and ice but heat was something completely different. They had a weakness to that, which is why their suits were flame resistant. If she had her suit right now things would have gone down differently but she didn't so she had to be careful. The strange thing about it was that in a way she was glad she didn't. She could admit that she tended to be more brash and strong headed when it came to certain things. It could be considered a fault that she would shoot first and ask questions later. Having her suit now would have led to her taking different actions and she would have never found out why this creature really attacked Canard. Honestly, it didn't seem that bad. It just wanted its kids back. What mother wouldn't? Moments like these gave her time to reflect better on her actions. She sometimes came off a little harsh. Perhaps questioning it and making friends would be the best course of action here?

"What's your name?" The Dragon looked at her and blinked. "This is probably a stupid question since you can't talk but I need to call you something." It roared out what sounded like a song. Mallory didn't know if this was an actual answer but she assumed it was. "Well I can't pronounce that so I'm gonna call you…. Glenda?" It scrunched up its snot at her in displeasure. "Okay not that… then what about…", she looked around the room, trying to find something that the dragon liked. Her eyes landed on what looked like a torn up bee's nest. "Honey?" It blinked at her and then shook its head. _"Picky."_ Mallory stared into the fire and smirk. "How about Ember?" It looked to be in thought but then shrugged. "Alright, Ember it is." The dragon sighed and laid its head down, going back to moping. It looked at the empty mound of leaves and let out what sounded like a sad moan.

Her chest constricted a little at the quiet cry. Mallory took a step closer to it only for it to lift its head and growled at her. She took two steps back giving it even more space and it stopped growling. "I thought we were cool. You let me figure out a name to call you. Look I seriously don't know what happened to your kids and I highly doubt Canard knows anything about it either but maybe we can help find them?" Mallory didn't want to be eaten or burned alive by this thing so she kept her distance. Ember sneered at her, laid its head back down and closed her eyes. _"That didn't go like I hoped it would."_ She sighed and sat back down. _"Can't say I didn't try. Well whatever happens if this thing tries to eat me, then I will kill it, sad mom or not."_

After twenty minutes Mallory softly walked to the hall trying not to wake Ember. She slipped out of the room and made her way to the front, not realizing that Ember wasn't actually sleeping. Getting to the entrance Mallory looked out over the landscape, wondering where Canard was. "Hopefully he's okay." She said to herself and sat down, wrapping her arms around herself to stay covered. "I wish I had something to wear."

…..

Canard growled as he continued to run across the spars forest. _"That's it! I've had it with that thing! This time I'll finish it for good. I just hope Mallory's okay."_ He thought as he ran, panting from the exertion. He wished he had never come across that cave. Ever since he went it looking for some kind of shelter that thing has been after him, he could only assume it was a territorial thing. He had invaded its home and it was pissed. That's all there was to it but the way this thing came after him was like it had a serious vendetta against him. "And now it's taken Mallory. Big mistake."

If it wanted to make this personal, fine. He didn't start this fight but he would finish it. Looking at his tracker he found the creature wasn't that much further, it had stopped and he recognized the area. It had taken Mallory back to its cave. "Back to where this all started." The mountain and cave came into view as he left the trees. "Not much further now. Hang in there Mallory. I'm coming." He pulled out his gun, ready to start climbing.

…..

Mallory was sitting close to the mouth of the cave, her legs curled next to her as she leaned on one arm, the other was draped over her hip. She wasn't right at the front of the cave because she was naked and didn't want to be attracting unwanted attention whether it came from odd creatures or possibly other beings here. Not to mention she didn't want her naked ass to be the first thing Canard sees when he got here. Tempted to check and see if he was coming but figuring it was pointless to do so, she stayed right where she was. That is until she heard a noise outside the cave. Glancing in Ember's direction and then back to the entrance, she decided to check it out. Risking it she glanced over the side and found Canard climbing up, not even ten feet from her. Damn he was fast.

"Canard." She whispered to him. He looked up and a look of relief covered his face. Increasing his rate of climb and he reached out for her, Mallory stretched her arm as far as it would go to him. They're fingers just grazed each other, so close to getting out of there until a shadow was cast over her. Looking above herself she saw Ember glaring down at Canard. Canard grabbed his gun but Ember moved fast and wrapped her tail around Mallory's waist, dragging her back in the cave.

"Mallory!" Canard called, climbing the rest of the way up and in. Once he had his feet on solid ground he pulled his gun out. Ready to save Mallory. He walked carefully into the cave until he heard Mallory's yelp. There was not time for caution, he rushed in to save her.

Mallory in the meantime was trying to talk some sense into Ember. "Please just let me talk to him, we'll get this sorted out. I'm telling you he didn't do it!" Ember still wasn't listening and Mallory was getting angry. "Wouldn't you rather you actually find the ones responsible for taking your children and get them back or take it out on an innocent person and never find them again! If it was me, I would do whatever it took to get my kids back!" She yelled at the stubborn dragon who gave pause to what she was doing. She glared at Mallory, realizing the duck she was holding upside-down may have had a point. Mallory had her hands on her hips, glaring right back at the dragon unblinkingly. Seeing that Mallory's logic was sound, she dropped her, making the duck yelped when she hit the ground. "You could learn to be a little nicer." Mallory hissed at Ember, who just ignored her. This was how Canard found them.

"Get away from Mallory!" Ember growled at Canard, seeing the same kind of gun the kidnapper used.

"Canard wait!" Mallory jumped up and stood in front of his gun.

"Mallory move!" He was confused by her defending the monster that took her, not to mention had been hunting him for what seems like forever. Moving forward fast Canard grabbed Mallory and pulled her to him, ready to make a run for it out of the cave until Mallory pushed off of him and went to stand in front of the dragon again.

"Stop and listen."

Then he got a good look at her and realized she was still naked. His eyes traveled down her body. "Uhhhh…" Not sure what to say but suddenly very distracted. Realizing that Canard was staring at her outright naked body Mallory covered herself with her hands the best she could.

"Look this is a big misunderstanding. Canard did you take Ember's children?" Mallory got right down to business.

Looking up at her confused, Canard raised an eyebrow at Mallory. "What? Who?" Mallory just pointed to the dragon behind her who was still growling at him, smoke curled up and out of her nostrils. "You named it? It had children?"

"Ember is a _**she**_ and would you please just answer the question."

He lowered his gun, truly confused. What happened? He was supposed to be rescuing Mallory. "Look I don't know what's going on here but this thing, has been hunting and torturing me for what seems like months now. I stumbled onto its territory, trying to find shelter and it came back and attacked me. I ran and that's it. There wasn't anything here when I came in." He glared at the dragon behind Mallory. The creature had stopped growling, it just stared at Canard, blinking and sniffing. Suddenly it sat back, at a loss on what to do.

Mallory turned back to it. "See. I told you Canard didn't take them." The dragon turned to look at the beds on the floor, it got up and walked to them, laying down on them with its back turned, moaning sadly to itself.

This sucked, He was supposed to be the hero here and now he was more confused than ever but before anything else could happen, he cleared his throat and held Mallory clothes out to her. "Uh here. You might want to get dressed." Taking her clothes Mallory dressed quickly, while he gave her privacy and watch the beast bemoan what he now knew was the loss of her children. He felt bad for her but this thing had done nothing but cause him trouble. "Now that this is all cleared up she'll stop hunting me?" He pointed to Ember who had her back to them.

"Yeah I'm pretty sure." Mallory stood next to Canard, now dressed.

"Good then let's get out of here." He grabbed her hand and started pulling her to the exit but she ripped her arm away.

"Come on Canard. We can't just leave her."

"I'm sorry, what do you expect me to do about it? It's not my fault someone took her kids." He crossed his arms, unhappy with the greeting he had received. _"You'd think she would be happy that I came to save her from a monster."_

"Look if we help her then maybe she can help us." Both Canard and Ember turned to look at Mallory.

"How?" Canard asked, knowing he was probably going to regret this.

"We'll help her get her kids back and she can help us get to the Brawns faster." Ember was suddenly standing beside them, wanting to know what the outcome of this would be.

Canard jumped at Ember's sudden appearance next to them, she looked at him hopefully. He didn't realize this thing could be hopeful. Glancing at the dragon and then back at Mallory with his arms crossed, he contemplated whether this was worth it. Both were looking at him expectantly. "No." This was the end of this argument.

Mallory and Ember looked at each other and then glared back at Canard,

…..

He had said no, that was the final word right? Wrong! _"Should have known I wasn't going to win that argument with two stubborn females."_ Flying on Ember's back wasn't so bad, if you weren't the one in front. Canard felt like he was getting wind burned from how fast they were going. "How are we even supposed to find her children?" He asked Mallory over his shoulder, his eyes sore and burning from the wind flying at them. Her arms were wrapped around his waist and her face was buried in his back, hiding from the harsh winds.

"Remember how you lost most of your gear when you fell here?" She yelled up.

"Yeah?"

"Well, whoever took them used your equipment to do it. All of our equipment has something on it to help keep track of it. So when you're close to a lost piece your com should let you know. I'm hoping they still have some of it."

"Whoever it was could be anywhere by now."

"Maybe but I'm guessing that traveling with three strong young dragons wouldn't be easy. It would take a lot of time to go from place to place."

Canard looked ahead, seeing that Ember was listening in on their conversation with a tilted head. He still didn't like this dragon. The day continued on like this, searching for hours. "We need to stop for the night and rest."

"Yeah your probably right." Mallory said, a yawn escaping her mouth. She was having a hard time staying awake at this point.

"Yo dragon take us down. We need to rest." Ember glared over at Canard but landed anyway. Once on the ground she laid on her belly to let both ducks off. Canard slid off first, landing on his feet with ease. Mallory slipped down and Canard grabbed her waist to make sure she landed softly.

"You don't have to worry. My leg is fine Canard." Mallory said thinking he was worried about her injured leg. It honestly hadn't bothered her at all.

"Better to be safe and be gentle with you then let you get hurt again and slow our progress." He still held onto her waist as he gazed down at her. Mallory's hands rested on his arms as she looked up at him and nodded.

Ember raised a brow at the scene. When Mallory walked away, Canard watched her go, his eyes traveling her form as she went. Seeing him blatantly staring at the red head, Ember used her tail to whip at Canard's feet, knocking them out from under him. He landed on his back with the wind knocked out of him. "What's your problem?" He yelled at the dragon, who was no longer in the same spot. He looked around in confusion and found Ember laying down next to Mallory. The dragon tilted her head in fake confusion and Mallory looked back at him when she heard him yell.

"You okay Canard?"

"No. That thing tripped me." He pointed accusingly to Ember who looked offended.

"Canard she's all the way over here, she can't reach you over there." Mallory looked at him like he had three heads. Ember had the nerve to shake her head at him, as is disapprovingly. That bitch.

"That's what she wants you to think." He said getting up and dusting himself off. Mallory ignored him and sat down next to Ember. The dragon wrapped her tail around Mallory and pulled her close, keeping her warm. Mallory seemed surprised but smiled up at Ember and leaned into her to rest against. Canard went to join them but Ember turn her head and glared at Canard. He realized that he was not invited to sleep next to Mallory. "What? I was with her first!" Ember only glared at Canard he looked to Mallory hoping to get some help but she was already asleep. He sighed. "I knew I was going to regret this."

…..

The next day they continued their search. It was that morning that Mallory asked Canard if he had her communicator. He realized he had left it in a hurry to get to Mallory when she had been taken. Of course Ember shook her head at him again while Mallory seemed to be in thought. "It doesn't matter. We'll either find it later or just leave it." Once they were ready, Canard went to grab a drink of water from the stream. They didn't need to eat or drink in limbo but some water sounded nice. Ember thought it would be funny to follow and knock him into the stream, clothes and all. When he came back up for air the dragon was smirking at him. He threw water at her but she jumped away and went back to join Mallory. This thing was just outright mean. He grumbled angrily, drying himself and his clothes the best that he could, then walked back to Mallory. His shoes slushed as he walked, the water logged soles squishing water between his toes with every step. His right eyebrow ticked in annoyance. "Stupid Dragon."

They were back in the air searching for Ember's children. Hopefully they would find them soon because he really hated this dragon. He was still drying. Mallory was seating in front of him this time and the dragon was flying at a more leisurely pace, so Mallory wasn't getting wind whipped as they flew. Another thing that annoyed Canard, Ember was so gentle and sweet with Mallory but with him, she beat him up, threw him into rivers and gave him wind burn on purpose. Then when they were on the ground, she was always occupying Mallory's time. He disliked Ember more and more. Not to mention he was freeze flying around up high in the sky, being in damp clothes. Unfortunately, he didn't have anything to change into, so here he was, clinging to Mallory and shivering.

Feeling him shaking Mallory glanced over her shoulder at him. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Nothing I can't handle." He said. Ember huffed, in response Canard glare at the back of her scaly head. Mallory smirked, seeing that Ember was picking on poor Canard. She moved her arm behind her head and slipped her hand onto the back of his neck. Canard watched her, unsure of what she was doing until she pulled him closer, leaning back into him, Mallory pressed her head into the side of his neck and pressed her back into his front. His surprise quickly wore off and he wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, keeping her as close as possible. She spread her thighs a little more, making sure his inner thighs were pressed into her outer thighs, trying to keep as much of him pressed against her. "Better?" She asked, smirking at him.

"Oh yeah." He was looking into her eyes. They were so green, like sparking emeralds. He leaned in, bringing his beak closer to hers. Mallory had yet to move her hand from the back of his neck as she brought her mouth up to his. They were a whisper away from kissing when Ember suddenly shifted, acting like the air current was giving her a hard time. Mallory let go of Canard and grabbed onto Ember, not wanting to fall off from this high. Canard held tightly onto Mallory. He gave Ember a dirty look and the dragon smirked back at him. He took it back, Ember wasn't mean, she was pure evil.

Hours later they hadn't found anything until Canard's com suddenly beeped. Ember and Mallory waited for his instructions on where to go. He opened it and found a signal not far off. "That way." He pointed to the west, Ember followed his finger picking up speed. The com's beeps became more frequent until it was a high pitched sound. "We're right over it." He said, Mallory prepared her gun as they landed. Searching the area, Ember sniffed around while Mallory followed Canard and his com. "According to this, it's not far ahead." He kept walking, moving a bush aside he found a piece of his equipment. Kneeling down he picked it up. It was an ammo bag. Searching through it he discovered a lot of ammo had been used. "We'll we're going in the right direction now."

"How do you know?"

"Because this is my ammo bag and a bunch of ammo has been used but only stuff used to capture, not kill. Most of the lethal ammunition is still here." He hooked the ammo bag to his belt, walking back to Ember with Mallory following him. Seeing her sniffing around, he walked up to her. "Dragon. Smell this, does it have any familiar scents on it." Ember brought her snot down to sniff it, reacting to it like she had just been sprayed in the face. She snorted and growled at the bag. "You recognized the scent I take it?" She nodded and laid on her belly, indicating them to get on. Canard hopped up first and helped Mallory up after. Ember didn't wait, she took to the skies and headed west.

…..

An hour later there was another beep on Canard's com. He opened it and pointed in the direction of the beeping. Ember followed. The beeping grew more frequent, until it was almost a high pitched ring. They were almost on top of it when they were fired on. A puck grenade was shot from the trees below going off right next to Ember. She was thrown sideways.

Mallory and Canard fell off her back, plummeting towards the ground below for what would be a fatal fall. Canard reached for Mallory mid fall, she reached back for him. They're fingers touched but they couldn't get a hold of each other. Then vanished through the tree's canopy and lost sight of each other. Mallory used her gun to shoot out a grapple hook and stop her decent. Canard did the same, only stopping a little closer to the ground. He released his wire and put his gun away. "Mallory where are you? Are you ok-" He didn't get to finish his sentence as someone clocked him in the back of the head, knocking him out. The last thing Canard saw before his vision faded was two very large feet.

…..


	9. Chapter 9

I don't own the Mighty Ducks

Left in Limbo

Mallory wished she hadn't used her grapple hook so high, now she had to climb down. "I just hope Canard's okay. He better be." She said to herself as she made her way down. "Canard?" He was nowhere to be seen. "Canard where are you? Please tell me you're okay." There was no response.

"Don't be dead." She whispered, looking around herself. He couldn't have been far. She walked in the direction he would mostly likely be and found his wire hanging from a tree. He had made it down safely. Her heart slowed at the knowledge but she froze when she saw his ammo bag on the ground next to very large foot prints. An imprint of Canard's body was on the ground, as if he had fallen on his front, his foot prints weren't anywhere to be found but these giant feet lead away from where she was. She had to assume this giant had Canard. Pulling out her gun, she carefully tracked the footprints. "I hope Ember's okay."

…..

Canard woke up with a horrible headache. He tried to use his arms to sit up but his hands were tied behind his back. "Well lookie here. He's awake." A deep voice with a thick accent said.

Turning to the voice he found the ugliest creature he thought he had ever seen. It stood ten feet tall, carrying what must have been a tree trunk for a spear. Leather was wrapped around it's waist like a skirt. Its fat stomach protruded out over the leather but for some reason the ribs on the side of his body were showing. Its arms while bulky looked like the skin was sagging on them. It had a head that looked too small for its bod and it had no beak. Just a jaw that protruded out and sharp yellowish-green teeth, that stuck out over its upper lip. Black beady eyes, stared at him, looking lifeless. It stood on two scraggly legs and was covered it wet pinkish looking skin. "Is my dinner awake?" Another voice said. This creature looked pretty much the same, only it had white hair on top of its head and warts around it's mouth.

"It is love."

Canard searched them both and found more of his equipment on them. They were definitely the ones who took Ember's children. "You. You took those young dragons, didn't you?"

The creatures seemed surprised that he could speak. "Would you look at that love. It talks." Said the bald one, who then laughed and snorted like a pig.

"Yeah it does. My look at that thing. It's so ugly." The white haired one spit green drool as it spoke.

"Hey man, you don't see me insulting your looks." Canard barked. The white haired creature's eyes widened in offence.

"I'm not a man!" It said, it's voice a little higher pitched then the other's. The bald one grabbed Canard by his feet and hung him upside-down.

"Apologize to me lady." The male brut shook him.

"That's a female?" It slipped up before he could stop himself. The bald one angrily dropped Canard on his head. "Ouch! Hey!"

"Don't worry love. This ugly creature wouldn't know beauty if it kicked him in the bloomin' face." The bald brut caressed the female's shoulder.

"Oh stop you charmer. Yehehee." The female cackled waving its hand in what was supposed to be a feminine motion. Canard shivered in disgust. He knew beautiful, this thing was as far from beautiful as anything could possibly get.

"What have you done with the young dragons?" Canard needed to find out.

"Did he just ask about those dragons?" Baldy asked dumbly.

"He did. What do you want with those?" The white haired female asked, putting her hairy hands on her fat hips.

"Their mother wants them back. She'll be here any minute. I hope your prepared to deal with a pissed off momma dragon cause if not, she's gonna tear you limb from limb." They only laughed at Canard, he was confused by their response.

"Let the little missy come then. She don't frighten us. We eat dragon all the time." The bald male laughed.

"Did you eat the young ones?" Canard attempted to slip his hands out of the ropes but they were tied too tight.

"We still have them, back at our home." The white haired female said.

"Quiet woman. We don't want him to know that."

"Oh who is he going to tell, the dragon. Ha. That dumb creature wouldn't know the first place to look." Canard growled at them about to say something nasty when a glimpse of red hair caught his eye. He looked out into the forest and Mallory peaked her head around a tree, putting her finger to her beak. Behind her he could see two yellow eyes and steaming nostrils hiding in the darkness of the trees, Ember. He smirked. These two were as good as dead but he needed them to take him to their home so they could lead them to the children.

"Well shall we cook him love?"

"Out here? Oh I just want to rest my delicate little feet." She sat down and lifted her giant hairy foot, rubbing the wart covered bottom of it. She brought her foot to her mouth and licked it to clean it off. Canard was almost sick. No wonder she had warts around her mouth.

Controlling the need to puke he spoke. "She has a point besides, that dragon and my friends are out looking for me. They'll find you soon."

"I ain't worried about no dragons. Together, me and me wifey can kill just about anything." Mallory peaked around the tree at the ugly creatures that had Canard. They spoke in what was an ugly version of a British accent from Earth. It grated on her nerves. She wanted to just kill these things and be done with it but Canard caught her eye and he shook his head no at her. Why? She looked around and didn't see Ember's children so why bother with these things.

"Well none the less. I'm a duck. Haven't you seen my kind before? Don't you know we're poisonous to eat during certain hours? I'm poisonous for at least another two hours." The brutes looked at each other.

"See, we should take him home and eat him, besides those little dragons would probably taste good with him." The female said. "We've been looking for the right time to eat them. So let's finally do it!"

The male rubbed his chin as if it was a hard decision. "Alright love. If that's what you want."

"Oh yay! I love dragon stew."

Canard looked back to Mallory and Ember, Mallory nodded and moved back with Ember. They would follow them to their home then attack.

"Well, Let's go then." The male grabbed Canard by his feet and threw him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Canard gagged at the smell of this thing. It was horrible and its skin was slimy. He and his clothes were going to need a really good washing after this.

…..

The trip didn't take as much time as he thought it would, they were at the home in an hour. Their home was a cave in the side of a cliff, a large boulder was used as the door. Canard could hear what sounded like crying dragons, at least what he thought they would sound like. "Here we are. Home sweet home."

The male dropped Canard to the ground and placed his spear against the wall. With great effort he moved the boulder covering the entrance aside. "Time to eat."

He went to grab Canard but puck-ropes were shot out of the trees, tying the ugly male's hands together. Mallory jumped out, her gun aimed. "That's what you think." She shot more ropes and tied up the male's legs. He went to his knees and struggled.

"Ugly little creature! I'll tear you apart!" The female charged Mallory. Mallory taunted it with name calling. Infuriating it even more. It was so busy trying to kill Mallory it didn't see Ember flying above, then dive down at her but the male did.

"No love. Look out!" It was too late. Ember landed on the females back, putting all her lumbering weight down on the ugly female. Her jaws locked onto the back of its neck, a sickening crunch was heard and the female screamed. The bald brut yelled out for its partner. He used his strength to ripe the ropes off himself. It grabbed one of Canard puck canons and went to shoot Ember but Mallory shot the gun from his hand.

Ember gave the back of the ugly white haired female's head a couple of good yanks and ripped it clean off. Tossing the head off into the forest. The male brut yelled and ripped the rope off its legs. It ran at Ember, Mallory kept firing on it but it did no good. It punching Ember hard in the back and tossed her away from the dead female. He kneeled down next to her not sure how to fix her. Mallory used this chance to untied Canard. The male looked at the two ducks, blaming them for this. "This is all your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Your fault!" He banged his big fist on the ground like an impudent child. Grabbing a rock which actually was a boulder, he tossed it at the two ducks. They dove out of the way, just avoiding being smashed but the brut got up and charged them while they were down. Seeing him coming, Canard thought fast. He looked to the large spear the brut left next to the door and knew just what to do.

"Hurry and help me Mallory." He pushed on the bottom of the spear and started tilting it forward the brut was almost on them. It finally fell forward, just in time for the dumb brut ran right into it, spearing himself right through the chest and stopping its charge in its tracks. The brut fell to the side, laying motionlessly on the ground.

"Are you alright?" Mallory and Canard asked each other at the same time. They smirked seeing that everything was fine. Ember rushed passed them, knocking Mallory into Canard in her panic to see her children. Canard caught her as she fell into his chest, they both looked at Ember in surprise, usually she was more careful with Mallory. They followed Ember in and found the young dragons were about the size of horses and they were all locked in cages. The cages were on the ground, right next to each other. They whined and cried when they saw their mother. She cooed to comfort them, touching her nose to each of theirs.

Seeing the sweet display, Canard begrudgingly admitted to himself that maybe Ember wasn't that bad. Mallory looked around trying to find some kind of key to let them out and finally spied one on a table. It was just out of her reach. Seeing her struggle Canard walked over and grabbed it for her, pulling the large heavy key down. He grunted at the size of it. It was the size of his leg. Both he and Mallory walked up to the cage and inserted the key into the first lock. Ember and her babies watched them struggle but finally unlock the cage. They opened the door and the first baby was out. Doing the same with the other two, the family was finally reunited.

While they had their reunion Canard went outside to collect his stolen gear back from the two very dead brutes.

…..

Turns out the kids could fly just fine on their own. They ended up having to go back East to get to the Brawns. Ember knew where they were, she knew because she knew not to go there. Unfortunately, the Brawns fired on anything they didn't recognize as friends, so Mallory and Canard would have to be dropped off a two days walk from the Brawns. Which wasn't bad considering, the walk to them would've been much longer before they met Ember.

They stopped for the night, tired from their long day. The babies curled up contently at their mother's stomach, making little purring sounds. Who knew a dragon purred? Meanwhile Mallory and Canard went to bathe. Canard had picked more herbs and made his special soap again but he made extra this time since he touched that disgusting thing. He still smelled bad from it. Giving Canard the chance to wash first Mallory laughed and the grossed out noises Canard was making as he washed his clothes. "I don't think I've ever smelt anything so bad in my life."

"Yeah but what you did was smart. We never would have found the kids if we attacked then." Mallory peaked over her shoulder at him. Canard was scrubbing away at his clothes while, scrunching his beak up at the smell. Mallory laughed.

He looked up to see her looking at him over her shoulder. "Peaking again?" He smirked at her.

"Maybe." She surprised him with her response.

"Well, if that's the case, feel free to join me." He laughed scrubbing his clothes and dunking them under the water then pulling them out and giving them a sniff. "Finally the smell is gone." He looked up and found Mallory standing at the water's edge looking down at him. She either moved fast or he wasn't paying very good attention.

"I was really worried about you today." She said, her eyes taking on a softer look.

"Oh yeah." He watched her nod her head. There was a long pause as they gazed at each other. "Come join me Mallory." He said it with the utmost seriousness. Mallory didn't answer and he thought that maybe he went too far until she started taking off her clothes. Canard laid his clothing on a stone to dry out and then turned back to Mallory. He stood in the middle of the large pond, waiting for her to join. His heart was beating against his ribcage as he watched her undress. When she was finally naked, she gently walked into the water, making small ripples in the surface as she approached him.

"My god your beautiful." He said breathlessly, swallowing and moving towards her, trying to keep his pulse down. They stopped right in front of each other, slowly their hands moved up and wrapped around each other. Canard's slid over her waist and pulled her close, their bodies pressing into each other, while her arms wrapped around his neck. She pulled his head down and brought his mouth to hers for their first kiss. It was sweet and gentle. He explored her mouth and held her tight. Her breasts pressed into his chest and one of his hands slipped down to grabbed her butt. Giving her cheek a squeeze he slid it down further and lifted her leg to wrap around his waist. She used the opportunity to place him at her entrance and slid down onto him, Canard gasped. Mallory tighten her arms around his neck and lifted her other leg to wrap around his waist, locking them in place behind him. Both his hands went to her backside to help hold her in place. She gasped when he started rocking his hips back and forth. They were in the water so nothing could be seen below their waist but what they were doing was pretty obvious. Canard sped up his pace and Mallory followed him. She threw her head back and Canard kissed her neck. Putting his hand on the back of her head, he pulled her to him for another long kiss. Moaned into it, feeling that she was going to reach her end soon. She broke the kiss and hugged her arms around his neck tighter, using it to keep her pressed into his front as she panted and moaned in his ear. He groaned and finally under the strange purple sky, Canard and Mallory found completion together.

Gasping and panting, Canard found a stone on the side of the pond in the water to sit on. Keeping Mallory's legs wrapped around his waist he sat down on the stone and kept her close. He smiled up at her and she caressed his face, kissing his beak with sweet soft little pecks. She rubbed his shoulders while he ran his hand along her waist and her back. They stayed that way, just staring at each other and enjoying the peace that surrounded them in this moment.

…..

The next morning, Canard woke up with Mallory sleeping in his lap. Her head was on his chest. His eyes traced her face, her long eyelashes curled up and swept over her cheeks, her vibrant hair was tussled, and her peach colored feathers looked as soft and sweet as peach fuzz. So beautiful. He caressed her pretty orange beak and tickled the edge with his fingertips. She shifted away from his hand, her eyes slowly opening to reveal the emeralds hidden beneath soft lids. To him, everything about her was perfect. Her eyes focused on him and a breath taking smiled lite her face. "Good morning." She whispered.

"Morning." He said back, kissing her on the forehead. Mallory closed her eyes and savored the feeling of his kiss. She had never felt this way about anyone before, it was so strong. "Canard?"

"Hum?" He smelled her haired, sighing in contentment.

"I think I-" She was cut off by three young dragons charging them and running around them, making lots of noise. "I guess it's time to get up." She said, standing and stretching.

Canard reluctantly let her go. "I guess so." He wanted to hear what she was going to say but it would have it wait it seems. Giving him a hand up, they walked over to Ember, her babies bouncing around them happily. Ember laid on her belly letting them up onto her back. They crawled up with Mallory in front and Canard behind her then took to the skies.

…..

It wasn't long before Ember got them as far as she could without endangering herself and her children. When she touched down, she let the two ducks slip gently off her back. Mallory thanked Ember for her help as did Canard. The Dragon curled her tail around Mallory and nestled her head into her chest while Mallory placed her hands on her head and leaned her head on hers. It was a goodbye hug.

Releasing Mallory Ember looked to Canard next, he nodded to her, expecting the same response but was surprised when she gave him the same hug she had given Mallory. He patted her head and smiled. "Yeah, you're not so bad either." He said as she let him go. They said their goodbyes to the children and the dragon family was off but not before Ember used her tail to knock Canard's legs out from under him one last time. Mallory snickered while Canard sat up abruptly to watch Ember go, shaking his head at her playful goodbye and last chance to pick on him. He was actually going to miss her, not that he would admit that out loud.

"Well, we be better start walking, we've got a two day walk ahead of us." Mallory sighed looking at the giant base the Brawns used. It was as large as a mountain.

"You're sure they won't attack you? Even Ember wasn't willing to mess with them." He said looking out across the land.

"Oh it's Ember now huh?" Mallory teased, Canard realized his slip up.

"Crap."

"I knew you would miss that dragon." Mallory laughed and started walking.

"Definitely not."

"Sure Canard, Sure." Mallory's teasing sarcastic tone did not go unnoticed by Canard. He rolled his eyes and followed his little vixen towards the Brawns.

…..


	10. Chapter 10

I don't own the Mighty Ducks

Left in Limbo: Final Chapter

They didn't come across any problems as they walked through the many, trees and jagged rocks that made up the dark landscape. Mallory was in the lead, keeping her eyes open for anything unusual while Canard walked behind her, he was quite distracted with Mallory's lovely backside. He watched her hips moving back and forth as she walked, the smooth grace in which her body moved had him entranced. Mallory was a bewitching little thing. He started thinking about last night and their shared passion in the water. He wanted that again.

He looked up at the back of her head, she was too busy keeping an eye out for danger, something he should be doing but wasn't because he couldn't get his mind off of her. "Mallory." She turned her head to the side, letting him know she was listening. "Why don't I walk in front for a while." Stopping she gave him her full attention.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"Your distracting me from keeping an eye out." He wanted to just get it out there. Blinking at him, Mallory tilted her head cutely at him.

"Can't keep your eyes to yourself?" She asked teasingly.

"If you want the truth, then yes. I'm distracted by your butt and I keep thinking about last night. I want more." He wasn't going to be shy about this, he was a man and she a woman, that's all there was too it.

"Now?"

He opened his mouth to say no but then really thought about it. Yeah he wanted her now. "Yes."

Mallory smirked, honestly what was the harm? "Okay." She scanned the area around them and found some trees that would give them privacy. "Come on then. I wouldn't mind having you again either." She swayed sexily, as she walked to the trees, adding more swish to her hips. Canard smirked and followed her to the tree line.

…..

Back on the road and fully satisfied, Canard and Mallory trekked on. They were only a day's walk away but they would need to make camp soon but something was bothering Canard, his instincts were going nuts. He didn't want to stop.

"We should probably find camp soon."

"We can't stop now." Canard said, his voice serious and deadly sounding.

"What is it?" Mallory looked at him and then searched around herself.

"I don't know but something is wrong here. We need to keep moving." He pulled his gun out.

"How much further do you think we need to go?"

"Until this horrible feeling stops." He said, the feathers on the back of his neck and on his arms were standing on end. Mallory saw it and understood. She picked up her walking speed and Canard followed, they needed to get out of here fast. He didn't know what it was but whatever it was, it was bad. Maybe it was from being here for so long but he seemed to be in tune with the environment here. Mallory trusted Canard's instincts, they had never been wrong once since she had been here.

"Do we need to run?" She asked.

"Yes. Go." They both took off, not sure what they were running from. "There to the right. Head into the forest." Canard said. She listened and followed his instruction. They darted through the trees picking up speed as a strange dark fog began to move in all around them. "There!" He pointed to a large tree that had a small opening, it was big enough for them to get in but small enough to keep anything bigger out. They slipped in fast, trying to keep their breathing low. Mallory couldn't help but notice the strong smell of the tree as she settled back into it with Canard, it wasn't unpleasant, just strong.

The strange fog started settling in around them. Noises could be heard outside the tree of something flying and swiftly moving around them. It hissed out air, the sound making their feathers stand on end, the sound of something dangerous. Mallory and Canard crouched to see what it was and peaked through the small opening. A strange monster unlike anything they had ever seen before hovered over the ground. It never touched the ground, allowing it to move without hardly any sound. It didn't have legs more like strange tentacles that lingered below its long body like a skirt. Its torso was comparable to a human male's but it had six arms. Two of the arms were on the front of its chest, held curled into it while the other four was on its sides but instead of hands, it had long bony spears that looked like scythes, meant for slashing and cutting. The back of its head and neck was one smooth line. Its face however was rounded at the front but it had no eyes, just sharp teeth that were constantly bared, for it had no lips to cover them. Its jaw was shaped like that of a human's, giving the front of its neck more shape then the back. Its skin was shiny and pale, it had a similar look to the monster that attacked Mallory and scratched her leg only that thing was sick and this clearly wasn't. Its movements were smooth and graceful as it floated around. Trying to find them. It stuck its long black tongue out tasting the air trying to find them but it was unable. She realized the tree was blocking their scent. Mallory watched the black drool drill off its tongue as it slowly slid back into its mouth. The same stuff that that creature that attacked her was drooling. Did this thing infect it?

It seemed like it was going to wait there until the sound of heavy metal feet approached. The creature turned its shiny head in the direction of the sound. It moved swiftly, disappearing in an instant. Mallory went to move forward but Canard grabbed her, shaking his head no.

The creature hissed and the sound of metal being scratched and clawed was heard. Mallory and Canard couldn't tell what was going on but they knew one thing, they never heard the heavy feet walk away from the fight. The fog lingered for a little longer but eventually moved away signaling that the creature had left. "We should stay here for the night." Canard whispered in her ear as he sat down, Mallory sat in between his legs and he wrapped his arms around her. She nodded in agreement. No way was she going back out there tonight with that thing nearby. Both ducks were able to relax and find some sleep.

…..

Upon waking the next day, Mallory and Canard both stood careful not to make too much sound, just in case. They had made it through the night. Mallory looked to him wanting to know if it was safe. Canard stared at the ground, his eyes narrowed in focus. "Yeah its gone. I can feel it." He nodded to her, giving her the okay to leave the safety of the tree.

They slipped out and were surprised at the massacre that had occurred. A Brawn was in pieces and the creature that attacked him was nowhere to be seen. Searching, through the scarp. Mallory found Brawn's head. She picked it up and placed it on a tree stump. Opening the back of the head, she checked the wiring and found, everything inside his head was intact, except one wire. She reconnected it and closed the back. "Brawn?" She called, as the sound of a computer running was heard.

The robot's eyes suddenly open. Canard put his hand over his gun but stopped when it just scanned them. "Golly gee Mallory, what are you doing here?" It asked in a friendly voice. Mallory sighed in relief.

Canard relaxed. "Brawn we're stuck here. We need your help. You have the ability to go through dimensional gateways don't you?"

Brawn laughed kindly. "Well of course we do Mallory. Be darn happy to help ya." It smiled at them. Canard stared at it, not sure he was believing it was that easy.

"Brawn. This is my friend Canard. Canard this is Brawn." She introduced them.

"Darn glad to meet ya." Brawn smiled at Canard.

"Hi." He didn't know what to say to this thing. It was kind of annoying but at the same time, it was strange to see the differences in its personality when it knew you.

"Brawn both Canard and I need to get to the others back on Earth. Is there a way you can send us both?"

"Why sure! We just need to get you back to the base and I can escort you myself." Mallory turned to Canard, smiling at his dumbfounded expression. "We're getting out of here Canard." He just stared at her, not sure how to process this. He was actually getting out of here. He thought he'd have to spend the rest of his life here, alone. Not sure what else to do he pulled Mallory into a hug and then kissed her. She was a little surprised but kissed him back. Brawn watched the scene a little surprised but monitored their vitals and changes. They broke the kiss and Canard smiled at Mallory.

"I love you Mallory."

"I love you too." She leaned up and kissed him again. Both were beyond happy, they laughed together until brawn speaking broke their happy moment.

"Judging by your vitals and the hormones your releasing into the air, you're telling the truth." Mallory and Canard both looked at him confused. "By my calculation and the differences in your reading Mallory, I can tell you have had intercourse twice."

Mallory blushed and Canard raised his eyebrow at the machine. He thought it a little nosy. Mallory coughed into her hand to dispel the awkward situation. "So, shall we start moving?" She asked, a blush still on her beak and cheeks.

"Oh by golly yes! Base is an eight hour walk from here, if we go now we should reach it before it gets too dangerous out."

They started walking while carrying Brawns head with them. It wasn't as heavy as one would think it would be. Three hours into the walk and two hours of Brawns almost none stop talking, Canard was ready to kill something. Somehow Mallory didn't seem to mind it but it was driving him insane. He tried drowning it out by thinking of other things and it started to work until Mallory froze. He turned to look at her wondering why she stopped.

"Brawn something just occurred to me. You have communication with your head in our dimension. Right?"

"Why yes I do as a matter of fact at this very moment I'm sending myself data and details of everything going on."

"Does that mean you could let Wildwing and the others know that we're coming home." She asked hopefully. That got Canard's attention.

"Why of course I could. I'll let you know as soon as I've told them." Mallory smiled. "Thank you Brawn. I could kiss you."

"Oh it's no trouble Mallory." They kept walking, towards the base. Another two hours went by but this time Brawn wasn't talking, he was attempting to contact the others on the other side.

"Any luck Brawn?" She asked.

"Not yet Mallory but I'm sure I'll get someone soon." He smiled and kept his upbeat attitude.

They walked on for hours and still Brawn hadn't gotten a hold of the others. Where could they be? Were they okay? Mallory worried. She knew she saw them make it out of limbo, so what was going on?

"You okay." Canard placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Oh yeah just worried about the others, that's all."

"Don't, Wildwing's in charge of them, their safe with him. I knew what I was doing when I chose him for team captain."

"I know that. We all do." She seemed unsure about something, Canard waited for her to say what it was she was thinking. "Wildwing's going to remain captain right?" She looked up at him, wondering if Canard was going to take over when they got back. She knew Wildwing would be only too willing to hand over the title of leader if Canard asked for it.

"No. Wildwing's the leader now. That's the way it'll stay, besides I wouldn't get to spend as much time with you if I was leader." He smirked handsomely at her. She smiled, happy with his answer.

"Can't have that now can we?"

"No we can't." He laughed, putting an arm around her shoulder, holding her close.

Brawn chose now to speak again. "I have made contact with your friends. I'm happy to inform you that they have received the message that you are both alive and well. Wildwing wants you to know that they'll be waiting and wants frequent updates with all details. His breathing and vitals indicate that he is happy, excited, and revealed."

"Alright. Can you do those automatically for us Brawn?" Mallory asked.

"You bet'cha Mallory." Brawn laughed. "Giving them a current update right now." Brawn was quiet for a couple of seconds, then spoke again. "I have just informed of everything I know so far, including you finding me together in the forest, your current health and that you've had intercourse twice now."

Mallory sputtered, in embarrassment, while Canard raised an eyebrow.

"Wildwing's response is 'Well that's healthy and wat to move fast Canard.'" Mallory smacked her forehead and Canard burst out laughing, holding his sides he was laughing so hard. "I have reported current events to the team. Mallory has smacked her forehead and Canard is laughing." This made Canard laughed even harder. "Your team's response is laughter." Tears were rolling down Canard's cheeks now.

"Brawn you don't have to give them that kind of information. Please leave details about private things out when you update him." Brawn was silent for a moment. "I have informed Wildwing of your request and he agrees." He reported.

"Oh man. I needed that." Canard said, wrapping an arms around Mallory's waist.

"Yeah great." She was never gonna live this down. Nosedive was gonna be talked about this one for a while.

"What a sweet picture." A voice called out from behind them. Everyone turned to see Lucretia aiming a gun at them. "Too bad I have to break it up but you see I'm getting out of here and going home." She aimed her gun at Canard. "One wrong move Mallory and I blow your boyfriend's head off." Mallory placed Brawns head down and raised her hands up in the air. "Good girl, know come towards me slowly." Lucretia pulled out a second gun and aimed it at Mallory. Canard wanted to beat this bitch senseless. She had stalked them this whole way. How did she find them? He looked at the arm holding a gun on him and found the answer, Mallory's com was on her wrist. "Pick up the Brawn's head, _**Canard**_." She purred his name. He listened and grabbed Brawn, not wanting to risk Mallory's life. Brawn was silent, he glared at the enemy that has been employed by Dragaunus, at this very moment he was giving Wildwing updates on the current hostage situation.

"Lucretia you bitch." Mallory stopped in front of her. "You really going to risk killing me?"

"I won't have to kill you. Just your boyfriend. You two are hard to follow by the way. There was no way I would have been able to keep up with you if I didn't have your com. See I was planning on jumping you at night but it just didn't work out. You were all over the place with that creature and then last night, well, I wasn't stupid enough to take that path at night, unlike you two." She smirked at Canard. "Don't worry handsome, I'll take go care of Mallory. As soon as we're through the gateway and in Puckworld again. I'll blow her brains out. Make it real quick too. It's a shame I can't take you with me. You're so handsome."

Canard clenched his fist, he had to stop this somehow but he was stuck, there was nothing he could do with a gun aimed at him. "Come on Lucretia. Leave him alone. Let's just go." Mallory moved in front of the gun aimed at Canard.

"I suppose we should." Lucretia tilted her head. "Such a shame, I would have enjoyed you Canard, I'm sure you would have enjoyed me too." She pouted, acting sexy but Canard found it to be anything but.

"Not my type." He said, holding Brawns head.

"Oh please I'm every man's type. Now turn around Canard and start marching like a good boy. You too Mallory." They did as she said and walked forward, no one said a word as she kept a gun to their backs at all times. Three hours of silent walking and they were at the base. "Hurry up will you. It's dangerous around here at night."

"How can you tell what's night here? The sky and light never changes." Mallory asked sarcastically as they started climbing the many steps that lead up to the base's very large elevator. It gave Lucretia the ability to keep Canard at a distance but Mallory right where she wanted her.

"Oh you can, if you've been here long enough you just know. Right Canard?" She said smugly, thinking she was going to be leaving him behind in this hell hole. They took the elevator up eight floors, per Brawn's instructions on how to get in. The doors opened. To reveal how high up they were. Mallory could see the strange fog that came from that creature in many parts of the forests below. Seems like they just made it in the nick of time.

Canard glanced down at Brawn and whispered to him. "If I use you to throw at Lucretia's head what's the chances of me hitting her?"

"I calculate a 60% chance of hitting Mallory and 40% chance of hitting the actual target." Brawn spoke quietly back. "If you miss there is a 90% chance of her killing you in one shot, there is a 10% chance that she might accidently shot Mallory." Brawn felt it important that Canard realized that it wasn't just himself that was in danger. "We need Mallory to move out of the way. There is no way to get a message to her without Lucretia knowing what you're doing. Your chances of a successful hit drop down to 20%."

Canard sighed, hearing Brawn say that. "What's the chances that Lucretia will get away with taking Mallory through the gateway?"

"We won't fire on her with Mallory so close. Right now her chance of success is 95%." Brawn answered.

"We can't risk it. We're gonna have to go for it." He whispered. The sound of something off to the right caught Lucretia's attention, she looked over to see a Brawn watching them and Canard saw his chance, he turned, lifting Brawns head and tossed it. Mallory saw it coming and ducked down. The metal head collided with Lucretia's face, knocking her back. The hit was hard and Lucretia stumbled back waving her gun around she shot at everything around herself. Mallory ducked and kicked her leg back hard, knocking Lucretia right over the railing. Her screamed died down the further she fell, until abruptly the scream stopped.

Canard ran forward and hugged Mallory to himself. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." They stood up neither wanting to see what Lucretia looked like when she hit bottom, from so high up. "Let's get out of here." Canard nodded and a large Brawn approached them.

"Golly gee that was a close one." He said in a very friendly fashion. It led them into the base to send them home.

…..

Mallory and Canard were curious about all the crazy looking technology that the Brawns used but neither wanted to asked, they were too tired for that, they just wanted to rest. In a large room there was a metal circle standing on a platform, large enough for a Brawn to walk through. Next to it was a control panel. This was the teleporter.

"Here we go." Brawn lifted a giant gold hand and guided them to the large teleporter. "This teleporter will drop you off right in front of The Anaheim Pond. I will walk you through." He hit some buttons to being the activation process.

"Hey Brawn? I have one more thing I need to ask you." Mallory said. Brawn turned her and waited, a smile on his friendly gold face. "If we end up having to destroy Dragaunus's entire ship, would you be able to help up get back home?"

"Of course Mallory. Just talk to my head and I'll come get you. If my head stops working, which is only a 5% chance of ever happening, I'll come to you directly." Brawn smiled and held out his hand.

"You're my hero Brawn." Mallory leaned up and kissed the robot on it's hard metal cheek.

"Hey! What are friends for." He smiled and activate the gateway. A swirling purple tunnel appeared inside the circular metal doorway. "Please follow me." He walked through.

Mallory and Canard held hands, taking a breath they walked through together. The moment they were out on the other side they saw everyone out there waiting for them. Everyone rushed in to give the two missing ducks a big group hug and celebrate their safe return to the team.

…..

A month later, Canard was officially announced as the newest member of the Mighty Ducks. Phil of course made a big deal out of it and when the press got wind of Mallory and Canard being an official couple, they were all over magazines together.

Wildwing had his best friend back, making life here a little easier for him. Before there had been an angry cloud that constantly hovered over his head but now it was gone. As Canard said Wildwing remained the leader, he was not expecting Canard to turn down the position as leader but accepted it. He didn't care either way he had his best friend back and Mallory was back too. She was basically family now, like everyone else here.

Canard smirked as he shot as many pucks passed Wildwing as he could but the team leader was on his game today. "Couldn't get a puck passed ya. I think you've gotten better."

"Thanks. So you gonna ask her?" Wildwing questioned Canard.

Canard swallowed a little nervous. "Yeah soon but I'm trying to plan it. I want it to be perfect."

"She's not gonna care whether or not it's perfect. That's not how Mallory is." Wildwing put on hand on Canard's shoulder. Leading him off the ice.

"Yeah I guess but I still want it to be perfect for her. She saved me Wildwing. I would still be there if it wasn't for her." Canard looked to be in thought. "What do you give to the perfect woman?"

Wildwing slapped him on the back. "Simple." Canard looked at him waiting for the answer. "Exactly what she wants."

"There you are." Mallory called from the elevators. "You'd better start getting ready. We'll miss our date." She said already in a short silk green dress that matched her eyes. Canard's and Wildwing's jaws dropped.

Shaking his head, Wildwing shook his head to snap of it and smirked. "Have fun buddy." He slapped Canard's shoulder and went back out on the ice to join his brother in a friendly game.

"So you going to get ready?" Mallory asked.

Canard closed his mouth and nodded. "Yeah but first, let's stop by my bedroom, that dress looks a little too good on you."

Mallory smiled enticingly at him. "Lead the way."

Fin.


End file.
